


Everybody Loves Gonta! (title is misleading)

by C0M1C4L



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, At least technically until i figure out more premises, Friendship, Hiatus, Multi, Murder Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-01-25 16:39:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 15
Words: 58,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12536316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/C0M1C4L/pseuds/C0M1C4L
Summary: A bunch of stories with each character where the motives target Gonta. There should be more Gonta content tbh.Continuing Shuichi's part!





	1. Intro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The students are rewarded for surviving so long. Along with free reign of the academy, the bears present the long-awaited motives!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the intro that got the ball rolling for me writing-wise. I'm not a writer, though, so the intro might be meh. The other chapters will be better I swear.
> 
> Anyway, don't you all just love Gonta?
> 
> —
> 
> I fixed the intro! It makes more sense now, I hope.

The morning after the most terrifying event of the students’ lives is… extremely jovial. Everyone is happily sitting together riding a high of content and trust for each other after discovering the mass execution was a bluff and making it through the night. A waft of everything a good breakfast should smell like overtakes the teenagers’ noses. The overgrown foliage, which would usually bother a majority of the students, doesn’t even graze the forefront of their thoughts. It instead adds a sense of carefreeness hardly available at the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles.

One student sighs. Although he is as happy as everyone else, he can’t help but feel… useless. All of his friends have such beneficial talents. Inventor, aikido master, detective, maid, even non-ultimate talents like Kaede’s leadership and Kaito’s bursts of unique inspiration. What can Gonta do? Be a meat shield, maybe, like Kokichi suggested.

There aren’t even any bugs in the academy. He can’t ask them to get help, to tell him where they are, anything. At least they’re alive, he supposes, he can’t help anyone if they’re dead.

“Rise and shine, ursine!” The thin blanket of joy is quickly torn off and replaced with a cold rush of bitterness. Kaede, who has worked so hard to make everyone feel safe and united, stands for none of it.

“What are you doing here? We're much happier without you guys.”

Rantaro, with intuition or something else, suspects something more insidious beneath the comedic appearance of the cubs. He points a cold stare at all of them. “You guys don’t pop up for no reason, so, what is it?”

The Monocubs announce with rehearsed unity their objective. Monokid starts, “IIIITS WHACH’UVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR…”

“AN-EXCITING-NEW-MOTIVE.”

“Again?” Kaede questions.

Monosuke continues, “You borin’ teenagers with your love and trust and crap, you’re forcin’ us to be more up and personal with you’se!”

The soft voice of Monofunny interrupts the flow of the spectacle. “I think it's nice they all pulled through together yesterday…”

“Huh? What happened yesterday?” Monotaro asks.

“You forgot?!”

“Anyways, we’re handing out to you’se some individual motive videos. The theme is you, and...”

“A-SPECIFIC-STUDENT-AMONGST-YOU.”

No small amount of unease permeates the room. It’s clear to the prisoners of the bears that they intend to directly tear apart their trust for each other. Worse is that each of them, no matter their previous promises, questions whether they themselves can be trusted to keep them under the circumstances.

Kaede angrily counters Kokichi’s typical antics. “Kokichi, stop it. We've all been doing so well working together. No stupid motive will get us to fight! Right guys?”

Kaito, always one to be vocal, responds, “Yeah! We proved them wrong once, we can do it again! We've got your back, Kaede!” He nudges Shuichi.

“Y-yeah!” The first responses break the pin holding the student’s confidence back.

“Tenko surely won't falter.”

“Atua smiles fortune upon us, so Kaede must be right!”

“My inner voice is telling me… to keep working together with you all!”

“Together, we're just plain unstoppable!”

Everyone is so ready to help, so ready to be useful to each other. What is a gentleman if not helpful? He joins in, “Gonta will support his friends!” After all, they’ll support him too, right?

“Monokid yells, “Woah, you're gonna eat your kids, words!”

Monosuke clarifies, “What he means to say is, you're gonna eat your words. With what we have planned, we’ll be getting exactly what we want!”

“What are you talking about?” Kaede demands.

“Baa-hahahah!” In a flash, Monokuma is in the dining hall. “All I did was back out of a cheap ending, that doesn't mean I ain’t making this a thrilling, chilling, killing game!”

“Ugh, this fucker’s back, too?” Miu moans.

“This seems like an attempt to salvage something,” Rantaro observes.

Kaito laughs, “Probably just his dignity!”

Rantaro continues, “What did the cubs mean by our motives involving a specific student?”

“Puhuhu! Glad you asked! The entire theme is all of you, and one of you!”

“Don’t confuse us more!” Kaito complains.

As if not hearing the complaint, Monokuma continues, “Every motive is tailored to you and involves one lucky student amongst you, and that student will be the focus all of your killing motivation! Be it secrets, pasts, personality, relationship, all the reasons to kill them or even kill for them are right there in those handy-dandy videos!”

“For example, maybe they owes you something, boom, motive.”

“Or perhaps you were lovers before being tragically torn apart!”

“MAYBE-THEY-HAVE-SOMETHING-YOU-WANT.”

“You could learn something new about them, despicable or admirable!”

“Anyways, here they are.” With their small, bumbling bodies, they carry stacks of monopads and hand one to every student. No one looks. However, it doesn’t take long for one of them to be excited.

“Oooooo, I bet we’re gonna get some real dirt on someone! Whoever this student is is one unlucky bastard!”

“Kokichi! We already promised not to look!”

“I don't remember agreeing to that.”

As Kokichi and Kaede bicker, the other students share their own thoughts.

Ryoma starts off with a sigh, “We’re falling apart pretty fast already. I can only imagine what that poor student will be going through, with so many motives against them.”

“It’s pretty plain to see that Monokuma plans to use that student’s past against them.”

Shuichi launches off Tsumugi’s comment, “Not only that, he seems to want to use old memories of every other students’ against them; he might even be preying on past resentment.”

“Huh? Gonta not understand. No one ever met before arriving here, why would we not have liked each other before?”

Ryoma pulls the rim of his cap over his brow. “You don't have to know someone personally to hate or even adore them, kid.”

Kirumi puts a gloved hand over her mouth. “Yes, and perhaps due to our status as ultimates, Monokuma has a lot to use.”

“Hmm, how interesting. A person’s strongest emotions can be drawn out with talk of a celebrity.” Korekiyo gestures dramatically, “What will that result in in a place like this, I wonder, ultimate versus ultimate.”

“But…um… wouldn't we remember stuff like that already?” Himiko questions.

“Himiko’s right. Out of the memories we lost, how much of it could be about each other?” Shuichi asks.

“Maybe those memories taken too?” Gonta suggests hesitantly. It’s a stupid suggestion, he remembers everything up until he was kidnapped, the others must too, right? It turns out his idea is not as stupid as he thought, because the others agree.

“They made us forget how we got here, they could have easily made us forget more!” Tenko shouts in panic.

Shuichi speculates, “They stated just as much. Maybe they took those memories for this specific reason?” Murmurs of worry permeates the room. However, someone cuts through the fear.

“So what?” Kaito interjects, “The obvious solution is just not to look. So what if we had beef before? We’re friends now.” The students agree, what use is fighting?

He chuckles, “Besides, some of us can’t have any history. I mean, Gonta lived in the mountains, didn’t he? Seriously, did he have cable or something there?” Laughter replaces the murmurs.

Kaito has a point. Gonta can’t have any relation to any of them, he was away in the mountains! They all agreed to not look at the motive videos, so there’s not much danger, but Gonta has extra immunity! Gonta can’t have a motive at all! He smiles and laughs along with everybody else. He can be trusted! He’ll be useful by not causing trouble! He believes that with all his heart!

Oh, how wrong he is.

“One more thing,” Monokuma’s voice rings out, “As a congratulations, you will all get access to the rest of the academy! Monocubs!”

“Yes, Papa-Father-Daddy!” The monocubs reply. “Here you are! The tools you need to explore the Ultimate Academy to your heart’s desire!” They announce, then present a pile of odds and ends that the students can’t make sense of.

Miu is the first to comment, “What’s all this useless junk?”

“This ai’nt useless junk, these are the keys to the rest of the school!” Monosuke lectures.

“We just have to figure out how to use them?” Shuichi asks.

“Yup! Have fun!” Monofunny encourages.

“So long, bear well!” The Cubs leave as promptly as they arrived. Monokuma follows suit.

“See ya!” With the bears gone, the students grow giddy with excitement.

Kaede, after breaking out of her fight with Kokichi, squeals, “Guys, this is great! We can keep trying to find a way out!”

“I don’t know about that, they wouldn’t give us such a privilege if we’d take advantage of it,” the former tennis pro questions.

Kiibo ponders a second, “Nonetheless, this is worth investigating.”

“I hope there’s a dojo!” Tenko exclaims.

“I need a place with high mana storage to practice my magic.”

“How exciting!”

Kaede looks to the group, and with her unofficial leader position, shouts, “Looks like we have something to do! Let’s go, guys!”

None of the students realize the mechanizations playing them all by their strings. Gonta, as large as he may be, is as fragile as a bug as far as the bears are concerned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yup yup new and improved!


	2. Kaede Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaede cracks and peeks at her motive video. She tries to make the best of it and use her knew knowledge to good use.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kaede is the first one because she was the easiest to write.
> 
> Themes are: Friendship, Trust, Basic stuff tbh

The Ultimate Pianist, after urging as many people as she can into not peering into the monopads, guiltily stares at the offending device from across her dorm room. Her dainty hands support her head, face currently twisted into a frustrated pout. How could she, in good conscience, even think of committing an act that defiles everything she stands for: having good fortitude, being trustworthy, and absolutely not betraying her friends by lacking in the former two. Why then, does she still give the device any privilege of thought? She stares harder. Perhaps there’s a compromise, a way to exploit the contents of the video not for an advantage over her friends, but to know what to be prepared for to protect them. “A quick peek should be fine…” She pushes off the bed and lifts the monopad off the table. “Just to see who could be in danger.” 

A shaky finger hovers over the power button. “In and out, no problem.” With a gesture so small yet feels as though it had the force of the entire planet, she clicked the on button and watched.

Monokuma’s recorded voice resonates out of the speakers, “Welcome to the long-awaited motive video! So, Kaede, where to start with Gonta Gokuhara-.” Immediately, she switches the device off. 

“So it’s Gonta? Why? I can’t imagine he’d have anything… incriminating. Is it really him?” For less than a second the thought of watching further passes her mind before it’s quickly banished. “I’m already on thin ice, and I’d be betraying everyone’s trust if I went any further.” Kaede swiftly chucks the monopad in a deep part of her closet and shuts it. Despite the symbolic finality of discarding the device, she continues to ponder its message. As far as she knows, there’s no reason for Gonta, the boy who grew up in the forest, made amazing contributions to the studies of biology, and only cares about being kind to others, could possibly be used as a motive. “But no matter the reason, I should keep an eye on Gonta. If there really is anything that any of us could… No, you shouldn’t distrust everyone like that! Just keep Gonta safe. Simple.” Unfortunately, no matter how much she tries to reassure herself about the rightness of her decision, she can’t be satisfied. She knows of one thing, however, that can always calm her nerves and wash away her anxiety. With a resoluteness contrasting her previous demeanor, she marches out of the dorms to her research lab.

By now, her research lab is already familiar to her. From the pleasing piano pattern on the door to the considerable collection of cds, she can describe it to anyone in perfect detail as if she were looking at a photo. Her focus for now, of course, is the grand piano near the center. With nothing to stop her from playing to her heart’s content, she closes her eyes and does just that. Hours pass, however many she cannot tell. She plays classics ranging from light and playful like chimes in the wind to heavy and dramatic as if the weight of the world was crashing against her ears. She is so lost within her music, in fact, that she doesn’t hear the knock at the door. Not that she could, anyway, because the music is so loud. The guest seems to finally realize this and opens the door to let themselves in. 

The guest stands to the side of the piano, unsure of how to get the Ultimate Pianist’s attention. Luckily they don’t need to do anything, because soon Kaede opens her eyes and startles at the sight of the guest, who, in turn, startles as well. The final notes of her song turn into a col pugna as she instinctively uses the piano for support. “Gonta? What are you doing here?”

Gonta has his hands raised as if to catch her. His eyebrows are so knitted together in concern that his sincerity is unquestionable. “Gonta is sorry to scare you!”

“Oh, it’s okay, Gonta! I should have realized you were here.” He relaxes a little, but is clearly still upset over his actions. Kaede can’t help but think about how kind-hearted Gonta really is, and feel a little, affection? “Did you need something?”

“Shuichi requested Gonta to find you. Gonta did not take long because Gonta followed wonderful music!” Again, Kaede feels something, but then she replays his words in her head.

“What time is it?” She quickly turns her head to the clock that reads twelve-twelve, late for her usual lunch with Shuichi.

“Um…” Kaede turns back to Gonta and sees him squinting at the clock. It occurs to her after a bit of watching him that he can’t read the time, but is trying to anyway because she asked. For the third time, Kaede feels the unplaceable feeling.

“Thank you, Gonta, I completely lost track of time. I'll be off, then.”

“No problem! Gonta will open door for you!” As he promises, he gets to the door first and opens it. Kaede walks out into the hallway first, but after a few few steps out, she falters a bit. 

“Hey, Gonta?” She spots a chance to speak to Gonta about what she saw, but hours of piano did not help her make up her mind. What if Gonta feels betrayed that she looked? Considering his character, he might be quick to forgive, but still there's the matter of how Gonta will take the information itself. Will he start distrusting everyone? She doesn't want that; Gonta often has trouble interacting with the others, it’d be a shame for him to avoid them all together.

“What is it, Kaede?” 

“Never mind, Gonta, it's nothing.” She once again decides to leave the issue to a bit later.

“Okay, call for Gonta if you need gentleman!”

“Will do, see you!”

It takes only a minute for Kaede to hurry to the dining hall. Shuichi notices her step in and asks, “Kaede, where were you?”

“I was just playing piano and lost and I track of time, sorry about that.”

“That’s fine, I was just worried, is all.” Though Shuichi doesn’t know it yet, he does have cause for worry. Luckily, not much can escape his detection. During his lunch with Kaede, he takes note of how distracted the girl seems. Rather than fully engage in conversation like she usually does, she gives short answers. She stares at her hands, as if they’ve done something she didn’t approve of. Shuichi is a bit tired of the monotone answers, so he pries, “Are you alright? Something on your mind?”

Kaede looks to Shuichi and ponders a response to his question. Shuichi is her friend and someone she can trust. After a bit of contemplation, decides she can tell Shuichi. They worked together during the time limit motive, so teamwork during this motive should alo be a smart decision. “Um, I have a bit of something to confess.”

Shuichi doesn’t expect that. “Oh, uh, sure.”

“I… decided to peek at the motive video.”

Shuichi especially isn’t expecting that. “Huh?!”

“I only looked to see who it was about! I turned it off five seconds in, I swear!”

“But Kaede, we promised not to look at the motives.” Shuichi can’t help but feel at least a little betrayed. Kaede is the glue that keeps the team together and if she turns her back on them, he doesn't think they can recover.

Kaede looks down in guilt. “I know, but I thought if I knew who it was, I could… protect them somehow.”

“Kaede…”

“I know I betrayed your trust… I betrayed everyone, really. It’s just, when the Monocubs said that the motive would make us target a student, I didn’t want that student to be all alone, so I thought… I could keep an eye out.”

Shuichi, logically, understands her point of view. Emotionally, he can’t believe Kaede had the capacity for hypocrisy. The conflicting points fight in his head over how to respond to her. He can’t just start letting his emotions get in the way and push Kaede away screaming and crying, she’s close to being his only friend. However, bottling like he usually does is definitely not something Kaede wants and will inevitably cause more problems. It’s evident the two friends don’t want to be disconnected, it’s why Kaede confessed in the first place. Shuichi finally concludes that he should follow her example and continue putting his trust in her. “I can’t believe you’d do this to us, but, I believe in you, Kaede. We can work together on this.”

Genuine relief and gratitude shows on her face. A single tear threatens to fall. “Thanks, Shuichi.”

Shuichi is glad for the resolution, but he’s curious about the situation. “So, who is it?”

She wipes her eye. “Right, the motive subject is Gonta Gokuhara.”

“That’s surprising. Gonta’s not one of the students I would have expected. Why would he be targeted?”

“I don’t know, but Gonta is pretty gullible. I’m scared someone will take advantage of him.”

“Hmm, that might be it, actually.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m thinking either they want to finally start the killing game by making an easy target, or they want to destroy our harmony by making one of the most trusted students the center of doubt.” Hearing himself out loud, he starts doubting his hypothesis, “But, um, I wouldn't jump to that conclusion without more evidence.” Kaede, however, is impressed.

”Wow, Shuichi, that must be it! But, I wonder, what can we do about it? I want to trust everyone, but Gonta could be in a lot of trouble.”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something. In the meantime, why don’t you just keep an eye out for him like you said? It might help to learn a bit about him.”

“Great idea, Shuichi. I’ll do just that.”

Gonta, after retrieving Kaede for Shuichi and eating lunch himself, lays on the courtyard grass sifting through the grass like a child playing in a sandbox. The others, mainly Kokichi, say that looking for bugs is pointless. Gonta swears he saw some of his insect friends, but the others, mainly Kokichi, call him a liar. He won’t stop looking. The bugs are his livelihood, and being stuck in a place without any hint of nature like his old home is extremely unsettling to him. He knows that the others feel the same, so he’s looking not just his sake, but for theirs as well, even if they call him weird for it.

Kaede finishes her lunch and begins her search for him. She figures Gonta should be around the courtyard and spots Gonta’s wild hair from her place in front of the main entrance door. She walks up to Gonta and greets, “Hi, Gonta. Are you looking for bugs again?”

Gonta looks up to her from his cross-legged position on the grass. He seems a bit embarrassed at being seen like this. “Hello, Kaede. Yes, Gonta is looking for bugs. Gonta not see one since arriving here.” 

“Yeah, you’ve been doing that a lot. Why do you look so hard?”

“Well, how can Gonta be entomologist with no bugs?” Gonta looks away for a second then back to her.

“That must suck, you must really miss them, huh?”

“Yes, Gonta miss outside, but Gonta also know that everyone else also misses outside! So he want to look, even if there are no bugs, for everyone.”

“That’s so thoughtful! I wouldn’t have thought to look so hard. You’re really helping us out with your effort.”

Gonta lights up, it reminds Kaede of a kid being told he can have ice cream before dinner. “Really? Gonta is helpful?”

“Of course! Even just knowing that you’re working so hard for us is reassuring!”

A blush as red as his eyes runs across his face and he smiles. “Thank you…” Kaede revisits her thoughts that morning about Gonta’s character. He really is so nice. It’s a shame that the Monocubs are targeting him, but that’s why she’s here with him. It’s about time she starts her mission, so start it she does.

“Hey, why don’t you tell me about what you do as an entomologist?”

She grew closer with Gonta today.

The majority of the students are in the dining hall. Kirumi is, as expected, preparing dinner. Himiko and Tenko form their usual, though one-sided, pair. So far the other occupants include Korekiyo, Kiibo, Miu, Angie, Kaito, Rantaro, Shuichi, Tsumugi, Maki, and Ryoma. In other words, everyone but Kokichi is present. Kaede and Gonta arrived together in time for Kirumi to finish cooking (this time she cooks spaghetti) and starts setting the plates on the table. Gonta offers to help, so he disappears into the kitchen. Kaede keeps her eyes on him until he is completely out of sight.

When dinner actually starts, it doesn’t quite resemble their previous breakfast mood. It’s not awful, no, but everybody has gotten off the high of surviving yesterday’s ordeal already, and treat each other as if they simply know each other from school. Kaede is a little saddened by the development, but understands that that kind of energy can only go on for so long. She doesn’t have as much capacity to think about it more anyway because of her recently self-appointed task. Speaking of the task, Shuichi has something to inquire.

“So, Kaede, how was it today?” He asks with a slight emphasis on “it”.

“I spoke to Gonta a lot, he really cares about being as much of a help as he can.”

“So, anything come to mind about how to handle the situation?”

“Not really, I guess I’ll just keep doing what I usually do until I do think of something.”

“Ooooo, are you talking about your crush~?” Kokichi’s voice intrudes the pair’s conversation and startles them. It seems he finally finds fit to join dinner and enters unannounced.

“Kokichi?”

“Hey~, Kaede, I just happened to listen and wouldn’t you know it, I heard about Gonta! So, what is it? You got a crush?”

The question, though she knows it to merely be a product of Kokichi’s jesting, stammers, “W-what? No!” Unfortunately, it does not help her case. More unfortunately, another certain student overhears.

“You have a crush on Gonta?!” Miu’s shrill voice screams in amusement. After that, the rest of the entire table promptly reacts.

“Kaede likes Gonta? - This is rich!”

“Kaede, are you going to confess?” The word confess holds a dual meaning to Kaede. While her teasing classmates mean her “crush”, of which she is visibly embarrassed about it’s intended meaning, she also feels the shame of not confessing to her betrayal earlier that day.

Kaito continues the teasing on a new target, “Hahaha! So, Gonta, how do you feel about Kaede?”

“Huh? Kaede like Gonta?” Gonta asks in shocked confusion. Kaede looks to his large figure, which is currently turning from person to person in search of an answer for the commotion. She thinks he looks like a child more than anything, trying and failing to decipher meaning from everybody’s shouting and teasing. He rapidly falls into a more panicked state. “Should Gonta take Kaede on date? What does date look like!?” he nearly shouts at the end.

Kaede decides to step in before the situation gets too out of hand, “No, Gonta, you don’t have to take me on a date! Everyone’s just teasing,” she glares at her table mates, “right, guys?”

Kaito, with the decency to be remorseful for his previous action, apologizes, “Sorry, Gonta, I shouldn’t have teased you like that.” The others follow.

“Yeah, sorry, Gonta - Didn’t mean it… - Wasn’t serious.”

He calms down, still sporting a look of confusion, but drops the issue at everyone’s reassurances. “Okay…?”

Sadly, Kokichi doesn’t give up the joke yet, “Aww, and here I thought I’d get to be the best man for the wedding!”

Kaede is tired of his antics. “Can’t you give it up already?”

“Yeah, okay, I’m done…” Kokichi glances at the table to make sure they’re listening, “I’ve just been wondering why you’ve been paying so much attention to Gonta lately~.”

“Geez, it’s nothing, can’t I spend time with a friend?” Kaede glances over the faces of everyone at the table and catches Maki’s glare. She grows unnerved. What reason does Maki have for being angry? Kokichi continues his interrogation.

“I’ve noticed you spent a lot of time this afternoon with Gonta. I heard you two even walked in together, why is that?”

“What? I already said it’s nothing.”

Kokichi isn’t satisfied with her answer. “I don’t suppose you have a reason to take more of an interest in him today, do you?”

Kaede’s anxiety spikes, “What are you saying? There’s nothing going on.”

Kokichi finally seems satisfied, “Alright, I got it, you were just hanging out with a pal.”

“Yes, Gonta and Kaede are friends!” Gonta exclaims.

“Yeah, we know, Gonta, yeesh, be quicker on the upkeep, huh?”

“Sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Simple simple


	3. Kaede Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The students learn of her sin, and now must make things right, especially for Gonta.

The morning mood for Kaede is sour. Kokichi once again tried to tear down the group’s harmony, and Kaede is once again left to try and clean it up. It's especially difficult this time, because Kokichi was implying that Kaede isn't trustworthy. She worries that because of that, the rest of her friends suspect her. She doesn't know way to do; if she confesses, the others will either forgive her or distrust her completely, but either way, she won't be able to protect Gonta anymore as long as everybody knows he's the target. She can only hope to keep her mechanizations a secret, but eventually someone will notice. However, she thinks, prolonging Gonta’s safety is infinitely better than any available alternative. With rediscovered commitment she takes off. 

Kaede understands that when Shuichi says “keep an eye on him,” he means to just make sure he’s doing alright, not to spend the majority of her time watching him from a distance and spending the remainder actually interacting with him. How else will she monitor Gonta without everyone becoming suspicious of her than to always go where he goes but pretend to do something else? 

It’s nine o’clock and Gonta is in the library reading geographic magazines on animals. It’s musty, dusty, and a mess, but Gonta doesn’t seem to mind. Not coincidentally, Kaede is also in the library. So far, she’s observed that Gonta has difficulty reading higher level vocabulary and kanji. He has asked multiple times for help reading certain articles. Another is that Gonta is far-sighted. He holds the magazines nearly an arm’s length away from his eyes. He prefers laying on the floor opposed to at a table (not that there are any in the library, he’s been doing it since they met). Within the span of time he has been in the library he has lied down cross-legged and hunched over, completely on his back with his hair wildly spread out across the floor, on his belly with his arms supporting his head, and even curled up on his side like a child. She has been comparing him to a child a lot, recently. She figures his behavior is the result of not growing up with any humans for ten years. Its no wonder Gonta has some trouble interacting with the others. She wishes they’d understand that Gonta is trying his hardest for everyone, and recalls her time with Gonta yesterday. He expressed his desire to help everyone so clearly, Kaede wants to do her part for him, too.

The door to the library opens suddenly and Kaede scrambles for a book. She doesn’t have any business to pretend to tend to in case someone comes in, but luckily it’s only Shuichi. She lets out a breath and greets, “Hey, Shuichi.”

“Hi, Kaede. What are you doing here?” He turns his head and sees Gonta, “Is that why?”

“Hello, Shuichi!” Gonta hollers from his position on the floor.

Shuichi quirks up a brow, “Hi there, Gonta. What are you doing down there?”

Gonta sits up. At this height, his head is a bit lower than theirs when standing, so he tilts his head up to talk with them, a contrast to how he usually talks with the others. “Gonta was reading. Kaede helped a lot!”

Kaede blushes a bit, “Oh, it was nothing.”

“I see. So, Kaede, what are you planning to do?”

“Um,” Kaede hasn’t planned on what to besides stay by Gonta’s side, she hasn’t even considered anything else, “Do you have any ideas?” she asks nervously.

“So, nothing, huh?” he asks exasperatedly.

“Yeah…”

“Do friends have problem?” asks Gonta, unaware that he is the core of the situation, “Gonta can help you two.” he cheerfully offers.

Kaede stammers, “Oh, um,” she looks to Shuichi who shrugs, “Yeah, why don’t you help Shuichi with some stuff?”

“W-what?” With the responsibility of entertaining Gonta suddenly thrust upon him, he racks his brain to think of an activity. He looks at Gonta’s figure below him, laying on the floor with an animal magazine looking back expectedly at him. He conjures an image of a child wanting to play with an older sibling and gets an idea. “I… have some puzzles and I’d like to have somebody to solve them with.” 

Gonta thinks a bit. “So Shuichi wanna have something like puzzle-solving buddy?” His expression turns into something sadder, “Gonta not smart… can’t solve hard puzzles.” His face turns sadder still, “Gonta can’t help…” Gonta’s self-deprecation violently tug at Shuichi’s heartstrings.

“O-of course you can! Just having you there will be a great help, I’m sure!” Gonta lights up at that. Shuichi high fives himself in his head. “Here, why don’t I show you some popular puzzles? I think you’ll like them.”

Kaede observes as Shuichi teaches Gonta methods for solving puzzles. She enjoys watching them grow closer, especially because she thinks growing bonds will immensely help in their situation. She hopes that Gonta, and everyone for that matter, can keep growing closer.

The time is around four in the afternoon when Gonta moves on to exploring the outdoors again. This time around, Kaito is sitting in the courtyard. Kaede thinks of having a conversation with him as an excuse to observe Gonta from afar. That can work. “How are you doing, Kaito?”

Kaito responds, “Hey, Kaede. I’ve been doing fine. There’s a lot on my mind, though.”

Kaede sits across from him, “Why is that?”

“Recently, I’ve noticed the others acting differently. I’m hoping it’s not the motive, it’d be real uncool if someone looked.” Kaede feels a wave of regret wash over her at those words. She feels as though those words are directed specifically at her. She did look at the motive video (though not even past the introduction) and has clearly been behaving differently since then.

“I’m sure it’s just some tension. I doubt anyone looked. Besides, I’m sure stupid motive will leave everyone’s heads soon.”

Kaito sighs, “There’s something more to that, I’m sure. I see Maki avoiding people a lot, especially you.”

“Huh?”

“I only noticed because it happened so often, but every time you guys are close by each other she disappears around a corner.”

Kaede recalls the incident during yesterday’s dinner. Maki glared at her during her denial of having a crush on Gonta… does this have to do with Gonta? Does Maki suspect she watched the video? That’s possible.

“I even saw her about to enter the library, but you were there, so she went to the recreation room instead. I think she was avoiding me, too, because she went through the back entrance.”

This concerns Kaede further. Was Maki, watching her through the second entrance? What if she wasn’t avoiding her, but watching her like she was watching Gonta? If she was, then she definitely knows by now that Gonta is the target. This is not good. What will happen if everybody finds out? “Why do you think she’s acting like that?”

“I don’t know, I was hoping you’d know. Did something happen between you two?” Kaede knows what it is, but she’s not admitting it to Kaito yet.

“No, not that I know of.”

“Oh, I see. I’m really worried about her, it’s just not healthy to avoid the people you’re supposed to get along with. Honestly, I think she’s being pretty ridiculous.” Kaede doesn’t expect to hear that from Kaito. She didn’t know that Kaito paid attention to or thought about these things. “I wanna have a talk with her,” he says with conviction, “she can’t hide from us forever!” He stands up from the table, “I think I’ll be able to catch her if I start looking now, you know how good she is at hiding! Must be from playing hide and seek with kids she takes care of all the time.”

“Good luck with that, Kaito!”

“Thanks! See you later.” He departs from the courtyard to the main building. Kaede thinks over the conversation. Maki possibly (very likely) suspects her, and knows that Gonta is the target. As far as Kaede has observed, Maki is rather distrusting by nature, so Kaito is going to have a difficult time reaching out to her. Speaking of suspecting, she realizes she’s being a hypocrite. This entire time, in order to justify her suspecting everyone, she’s convinced herself she’s protecting Gonta. Rather than suspect everyone for the sake of one friend, she should trust everybody to work together. She surveys the grassy areas and finds Gonta, but rather continue watching him, she turns around to head her to room. She’s not helping anybody by hovering around Gonta, after all.

That day’s dinner is when everything goes wrong. Kaede expects to see an image of friendship and harmony and happiness to match her mood. Perhaps she would confess and they could discuss a solution. Instead, she is greeted with uneasy stares. Why does she feel such tension? What happened? Everyone is in the room except for, oddly, Kirumi and Gonta. Kaito and Maki are together and she stares at her so intensely. Kokichi merely stands in a corner looking pleased. Nervousness pours from her mouth as she asks, “Hey guys, what's wrong?”

The room is quiet until Kaito speaks up with hesitation, “Hey, Kaede, um, Maki told me something interesting…” Kaede’s mind flashes to their earlier conversation. A fear bubbles up inside her., she knows exactly what this is about. “It's about the motive…” Some of the others, who are also unaware of why the tension in the air is so thick, turn to look. “Did you look at the motive video?”

Sounds of disbelief reverberate through the room, “She wouldn't do that-Why would she look?-What's Kaito going on about?” 

Kaede looks to Maki who stands a bit behind Kaito. The Ultimate Child Caregiver glares the same glare as yesterday’s breakfast, but this time due to context the suspicion and distrust behind it becomes obvious. The guilt she feels is so heavy she could be crushed by it. She wants to confess, but this situation is terrifying.

Her closest friend speaks on her behalf. “Why don’t you guys hear Kaede out, first? We need to communicate if we want to resolve this.” Shuichi says sagely despite his usual nervousness. He needs to protect his friend, and in turn, the others as well. He knows the truth, but the rest of his class needs to see it in as friendly a light as he did, and trust Kaede.

Kaede’s gratefulness for Shuichi’s help lifts some of the weight of the guilt. Shuichi believes in her, so she should believe in him and the rest of the class like she realized yesterday. “I do have something to confess,” she takes a deep breath, “I looked at the motive video.” Her classmates responds with shock. She expects as much, even in the scenario of a perfect breakfast she pictured earlier. 

“I knew it,” quietly claims the voice belonging to Maki, “What were you planning with it? You were spending so much time with Gonta so soon after the motives were given out.”

“What I did was wrong, I know that. I did it because I didn’t trust that the target was safe, which is stupid thinking back on it because that also means I didn’t trust all of you. I watched the video to see who was the target and no further. I’m sorry I betrayed all of your trust.” The end of her confession is met with expressions of understanding and forgiveness, but also some of resentment, mainly from Maki. 

“You went back on your word.” Maki says simply.

“Yes, I did, I’m sorry for that, too.”

Maki decides to deal a massive blow to Kaede. “How dare you try and lead us when you’re so hypocritical, you’ll lead us straight to the killing game.” 

“M-Maki!” shouts Kaito, “You shouldn’t say things like that, we’re in this together!”

“Kaede didn’t seem to think so when she looked at the motive video.”

Kaede resolves to defend herself from tirade. “And I realized that that was wrong, too! Let’s not split apart over this, please?” 

“You can’t really expect us to keep working together, do you?”

“Look, I only did it to find out that Gonta is the target-”

“So it is Gonta, and you stalked him since.”

“No!”

“Did you think he was an easy target? Gonta is gullible, he’d do anything you say and you thought to take advantage of it, didn’t you?”

Shuichi attempts to step in again, “I can vouch for Kaede, she did nothing that warrants suspicion of murder!”

Maki has none of it. “So you knew, too. Kaede was acting so foolishly obvious that half of us figured out Gonta was the target. Gonta really is an idiot, not noticing how you were behaving. You two are definitely going to get us killed.” 

Some time in the middle of the bickering, Kaede hears a light bang but pays it no mind. If she looked, she would have seen Gonta at the door, his expression continuously contorting into worse and worse worry. She would have stopped the argument then to address him, but instead, Gonta hears the worst. 

“Kaede and Maki fighting because of Gonta?” Right behind him steps in the form of Kirumi.

“I’m sorry, Gonta had gotten suspicious and hurried here faster than I could follow.”

Kaede hurries to answer Gonta, “Gonta, it’s not you-”

An annoying interruption cuts her off, “Geez, Gonta, you big dum-dum, yes! You’re so stupid you caused such a big problem with Kaede!” Kokichi unhelpfully explains.

“Gonta… cause problem?” Gonta looks lost and guilty.

Kaede tries again to explain to Gonta, “No, Gonta, it’s not your fault. I looked at the video that said the target is you and-”

“So Gonta is target?”

Maki chides him, “Yes, if you paid more attention, it should have been obvious.”

Gonta’s eyes start watering as he apologizes, “Gonta sorry, Gonta not smart boy…” Under the stares of everybody in the room, along with the crushing remorse of being the source of conflict makes Gonta feel tinier than an ant. The tears fall freely now, “Gonta will go so he is not problem anymore, go far as Gonta can! Killing game can’t start!”

The display of vulnerability from the entomologist stirs a massive pot of pity in Kaede. “Gonta, you don’t need to do that, we want you here.”

Kaito joins, “Yeah, man, we want you here!”

Gonta uncharacteristically shouts across the room, surprising everybody, “But Gonta doesn’t want to cause murder! If Gonta causes hurt, friends can no become happy… Gonta can’t do that to friends!” Before another utter of protest could even be thought to be made, Gonta bolts out of the dining hall. The last everyone sees of him is his long, forest-green hair trailing behind him.

“Gonta!” Kaede calls out. He unsurprisingly does not return. Kaede should have expected such a response from him. He is the kind of person who, if given the chance, would do anything to help others. She understands more fully now why the Monocubs made Gonta into a target, he cared the most about helping the rest of us. 

“This is what you caused with your meddling.” Maki’s cold voice invokes a fire in Kaede.

“I already understand what I’ve done!” Frankly, Kaede is tired of Maki. To her, it seems like she only wants to point out her flaws rather than resolve anything. “At least I’m trying to help everyone! What are you doing, telling us not to trust each other and nothing else!”

Maki’s expression turns darker, “You weren’t helping.”

“You-!”

A voice rings out across the room, interrupting the rising conflict, “Shut up! Both of you, come on, we all know both of you don’t want anyone getting hurt, but arguing who’s right isn’t going to do it!” Kaito addresses Kaede first, “I know you want to help everybody, but I also know this isn’t how you want to do it.” Kaede looks down at her shoes but nods. “And Maki, I don’t know what makes you believe just suspecting each other is a solution, but when we talked earlier… nevermind. Can you believe in Kaede for just a bit, just this once?” Maki stays silent for a moment and fiddles with her hair in deep contemplation. It’s clear she is not used to being in such a social setting, and has trouble doing what Kaede finds simple and believe in others. 

However, this time, Maki says, “Alright, so we can get this behind us already.”

“Thank you, Maki,” says Kaede with utmost sincerity.

Kaito is pleased with the outcome of his meddling and exclaims, “Haha! That’s great! Now, let’s go find the big guy, yeah? Where could he have gone to?”

Gonta lies against the concrete wall of the gargantuan cage. Earlier he ran as far away from the main building as he could, but was once again reminded of the hellish prison they were forced into when he reached the edge. He is surrounded by an awkward fusion of nature and man consisting of trees and pointless concrete structures, made more eery by the darkness of the night sky. His face is a mess of tears, snot, and spit, and no matter how many times he wipes them away more come to replace them, as if to say he isn’t allowed to stop. Why does he always cause trouble? Why can he never understand how to be better? His birth family sure made it clear that they disliked what he’d become, so he’s trying real hard to be good enough. Even before that, parents complained about him for being so scary to the other kids, but he didn’t know how to fix that. Now, in school (or prison), he puts others off somehow. What does he have to change about himself to stop being such a burden? Maybe it’s better to disappear again like he did ten years ago. He was never a problem in the mountains (except to the occasional hunters and campers he’d unintentionally scare) with his forest family. Gonta dismisses the thought of disappearing, what kind of person would he be to run from others when they could need his help? He realizes right then that that is exactly what he’s doing now and scolds himself again about how stupid he is. He sobs some more. 

Amidst his (loud) sobs, a faraway voice calls. Are they searching for him? He’s not ready, not ready at all to even talk to anybody. He hears their footsteps and pinpoints them to be around twenty five meters away to the front-left of him. They’re close enough to hear him crying if he doesn’t stop right then. He puts his hands over his mouth and breathes through his nose. It doesn’t help. He contemplates running, but his knees give out when he tries to stand. What does he do? Once again, he doesn’t know.

Kaede, along with Ryoma, Rantaro, Himiko, and Angie, are searching the outskirts of the academy. Occasionally, they’ll call out for Gonta, like a dog, Kaede thinks guiltily, and pause in their tracks when they hear any kind of noise. They’ve been out for ten minutes so far.

“Nyeh, this is tiresome. I should just use a tracking spell.”

Ryoma sighs, “He could be anywhere.”

“Atua is watching over Gonta’s kind spirit, so he will be a-okay!”

“I’m sure he’ll show himself soon if we keep searching,” Rantaro reassures.

“Yeah, we just have to keep calling out to him. He’ll see we’re trying hard to find him, and come right into our arms!” Kaede claims.

“You make him sound like a dog,” Ryoma points out. Kaede flinches at the accuracy.

“Wait, do you guys hear that?” Rantaro asks in a hushed tone. The rest go silent. A far off cry is heard. “I think that’s him.”

Himiko is relieved, “It’s a good thing Gonta cries so loudly, otherwise we’d be out here forever.”

Kaede doesn’t hesitate to run towards the noise. “Gonta!” she calls. As she runs she thinks she can hear the crying getting louder. It’s definitely him! She makes through one last patch of concrete pillars and trees and finally finds Gonta at the edge of the cage. He looks like a rabbit caught in a trap when he sees her. His face is still fresh with tears when she walks up to his curled-up form. She feels a pit of remorse grow in her stomach, but she has to put that aside for now. “Gonta,” she starts, “What are you doing all the way out here? We’re worried about you.” Behind her, she can hear the footsteps of the rest of her search group.

“There you are, Gonta,” Rantaro greets. Seeing a nervous look from the younger, he reassures, “Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble or anything like that.”

Ryoma speaks, “Good to know he’s here, I’ll go get the others. Meet you at the dorms.” Moving at such a speed that could hardly be seen, he dashes off. 

“Gonta,” Kaede addresses, “can you talk to us?” Gonta wipes away his tears and opens his mouth, but only manages some intelligible noises and a hiccup. “That’s alright, we’ll wait for when you’re ready.” She holds out her hand to the crying boy, “Let’s get you to the dorms.” 

Gonta looks at her hand for a moment, does he deserve to be treated so kindly by the people he caused trouble for? Even if Rantaro said he’s not in trouble, that doesn’t mean he didn’t cause it. Then he associates Kaede’s gesture with that of a gentleman. She is being kind for kindness sake, and who is he to refuse it? More than that, he needs it and appreciates it so much. Another tear escapes his eye. With little hesitation he grabs it. Though he doesn’t need it (and she doesn’t have the strength to), Kaede makes a gesture to hoist him up. With a nod to the other three, they silently make their way to the dorms. 

As promised, Ryoma had gathered the rest of the students and they stand in front of the dorm building entrance. A couple of them see the group from a distance and make their way over to them.

“Oh my, Gonta looks awful!” speaks Tsumugi when she reaches them.

“Let’s get him cleaned up asap.” urges Kaito. 

When they finally make it to the other students, Gonta sees the concerned expressions on everyone’s faces. He squeezes Kaede’s hand tighter and she squeezes back. Kirumi assists Kaede in leading Gonta to his room. The rest stay outside.

“I guess right now all we can do is wait until Gonta’s ready to talk,” suggests Ryoma.

“Seems like it.”

“Let’s not push him, if he needs all night or even more than that to compose himself, we’ll wait,” Kaito advises, “So, for now, let’s turn in. I’m sure Kaede and Kirumi can handle for now.” At his instruction, everyone goes to do just that and wait for the next morning.

“Gonta, you can leave your dirty clothes by the door and I will collect it,” Kirumi says from outside Gonta’s bathroom door. She turns to Kaede, “Will that be all?”

“Yes, I think that's all we need. I'll take it from here.”

“Then I will take my leave. Do not hesitate to call for me if you require more assistance.” With that, Kirumi leaves. 

Kaede sits on the bed waiting for Gonta exit the bathroom. Earlier, she resolved to set aside her own feelings in favor of taking care of Gonta, but her shaking hands think otherwise. Why can’t she hold it in for just a second? She stills her hands just in time before Gonta exits the bathroom. He silently dumps his dirty clothes by the door, makes his way to the bed, and sits down next to Kaede. The pianist wordlessly puts a hand to his back and rbs gently. “Do you want to talk, or do you want to sleep first?” 

Gonta looks a lot better than he did when Kaede found him. Tears are no longer falling on his face, the only evidence they were there before is the redness around his eyes. He looks into Kaede’s eyes and she looks back. She can see such a profound desire to be a good person in those depths. More than that, she quite literally sees herself reflected in his eyes. She also tries so hard for her friends, and feel as though the weight of the universe is on her back when she fails. Her hands shake again.

“Gonta, would like to talk tomorrow, sorry.” 

“I completely understand.” When she says she understands, she truly means it, in more ways than one. The erratic movements of her grow stronger, and she can’t hide them anymore. Her shoulders follow, and then her whole frame starts shaking.

Gonta becomes concerned immediately, “Kaede! Why you cry?”

“I-Don’t worry about me,” she says unconvincingly. 

“Gonta can’t do that!” He puts a hand to her back and rubs just as she had done for him. “Gentleman help friends… no, friends help friends! Kaede help Gonta so much, let Gonta help you!” 

As if those words were a password to her tear ducts, heavy tears rapidly fall. “I, I wanted to help, but I made everyone so worried, I even made you cry!”

“What? Is not Kaede’s fault!”

“Yes it is! I looked at the motive video!” Kaede admits, “I found out you were the target, got into an argument with Maki, and made you feel responsible for all of it!”

“Kaede, please believe Gonta when he say, is not Kaede’s fault! You try to help, Gonta understands.”

Kaede sighs, “I know you do.” They stay silent for a few moments, too drained of energy to talk at the moment, and instead simply enjoy each other’s company. More tears fall from Kaede’s face. Suddenly, she feels a thumb wipe away her tears. “Thanks.” They stay silent a few moments longer. Eventually the force of sleep pulls down her eyelids, and she sleeps.

Kaede wakes up. The effects of sleep slowly drain from her mind and she grows aware of her surroundings. Her arms are wrapped around something warm, and its arms hug her back. She wakes up completely. Her eyes widen and stare at the peaceful sleeping face of Gonta, who currently has his arms wrapped around Kaede and his legs intermingled with her own. She blushes at the intimacy of their position. When did they get like this? Was she too tired to go back to her room and simply fell asleep here? Could she somehow sneak out of his grip withou him waking? She decides to try. First she removes her arms from around Gonta’s torso, then untangles her legs from his, but as soon as she tries to leave the bed, the arms around her don’t let her go no matter how much she pulls. She doesn’t want to wake Gonta so abruptly, so gives up, stays in the bed for longer. 

“Rise and shine, ursine!” The morning announcements finally play. Soon, Gonta opens his eyes and sees Kaede. He promptly panics.

Disentangling himself from Kaede so quickly she nearly falls off the bed, he apologizes loudly, “Sorry! Gonta is so sorry!”

After recovering from being jostled around, she responds, “It’s okay, Gonta, you didn’t do anything wrong!” He clearly is not reassured in the slightest.

“But, gentleman and lady should not be in bed together,” he argues.

At the odd comment, Kaede inquires, “Where did you hear that?”

“On tv, gentleman and lady never sleep together.” 

Kaede blushes at the unintentional implications, of which she knows Gonta is unaware. “That’s not true, we had something like a sleepover, friends do it all the time.”

“...Oh, so is okay?”

“Yeah, It’s not like I’m here against my will,” she jokes. She stands up from the bed and heads to the door. “I’m going to go freshen up in my room. Afterwards, do you want to head to breakfast together?”

“Gonta would love to!”

It takes them around twenty minutes to get ready, but soon they’re off. On their way there, Gonta extends a hand just as Kaede had done yesterday. She accepts with a smile. 

When they open the doors to the cafeteria, they are met with the gazes of their classmates. The pair squeeze the other’s hand tighter, and prepare to reconcile and help everyone like they both strived to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, I had no idea how to end that


	4. Kirumi Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kirumi takes Gonta under her wing. While she teaches Gonta, she might learn something from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooook I dunno how fast I can update but here's the start of the next character part!

Kirumi is the kind of person who puts everyone else’s needs before her own, as per required for an Ultimate Maid, so it is only natural for her to serve breakfast before eating any herself. Throughout the entire breakfast she expertly responds to the requests of her classmates without fail, paying equal attention to everyone. Nearly everyone. Today Kirumi pays extra attention to Gonta because recently she’s observed that he is very prone to messes. She hovers around him but masks her intent with offers of assistance, “Would you like some tea, Gonta?”

Gonta brightly responds, “Yes, please!” As Gonta drinks his tea, Kirumi watches in case of spillage. During this, she sees that he is trying, and failing, to hold the tea cup properly and elegantly. She recalls his desire to learn etiquette. 

“Even now you are working hard to become a gentleman.” Upon her comment, Gonta becomes bashful.

“Yes… Gonta try, but he not know much.”

Kirumi simply says, “I see,” and prepares to serve the others.

“Gonta think Kirumi is very elegant and amazing! Gonta have lots to learn from Kirumi!”

The comment takes Kirumi by surprise and she pauses in her step, “You consider my work something to admire?”

Before Gonta can explain his reasoning, the Monocubs disrupt the peaceful breakfast. 

After breakfast, Kirumi is left to do her usual work, which is currently scrubbing clean the dining hall floor, with the entomologist’s words hanging over head. This is definitely a situation that requires her skill, so how can she help Gonta? With each swipe of the broom, an idea appears. Swipe. If Kirumi were to teach him anything, she would need to set aside a lot of time for him. Swipe. She doesn’t have all the time in the world, she needs to find an ideal situation that lets her teach Gonta and do her usual duties. Swipe. He said he admires Kirumi, so he models himself after her. Swipe. He loves to help. Swipe, stop. She can take him in as an apprentice. She sets down her broom and sets off to capitalize on her idea as soon as possible.

Kirumi hunts down Gonta near his newly-discovered lab, “Gonta, do you have a minute?”

Gonta, as friendly as ever, greets, “Hello, Kirumi! What do you need?”

Kirumi stands straighter and presents her proposal, “I have been pondering your earlier comment about desiring to learn from my work. I have reached the conclusion that apprenticing under me will be the most effective method for me to teach you. Is this an agreeable conclusion? 

Gonta turns his gaze downwards to ponder a moment, then gives her extremely positive reception, “That sounds like great idea! Thank you, Kirumi, for helping Gonta!”

Kirumi is pleased to hear that response. “It’s no problem. Now come along,” she commands, “A maid should not dawdle.”

The newly-made apprentice asks in surprise, “Huh? Now?”

“Of course, I believe in beginning tasks right away, and if you want to be my apprentice, you should be ready to perform your duties at the drop of a hat. My tutelage will be very demanding, do you understand?”

Her apprentice eagerly nods, “Gonta understands! Lead the way!” This is good, Kirumi thinks, not only will she fulfill Gonta’s wish, the tasks needing to be completed can be done much faster and with more efficiency (that is, if Gonta gets the hang of maid duty quickly). With a new task in front of her, the Ultimate Maid heads back to the dining hall in a brisk pace. She hears Gonta hurry to fall into step behind her, and she smiles.

“Alright, Gonta, I need you to sweep the floor and gather everything into a pile, can you do that?”

Gonta gazes curiously around the room and then to the broom in his hands. The odd delay before a simple task makes kirumi furrow her brows in confusion. Gonta sees her look, and mistakes it for anger, “Sorry, Gonta is confused! Dining hall doesn’t look dirty to Gonta.” Kirumi then remembers Gonta’s background. Of course somebody raised by wolves in the forest would have lower standards of cleanliness than an ultimate maid. In fact, this puts him behind in a lot of other aspects as well, including his speech. To Kirumi, this simply means she has to work harder to whip Gonta into shape for a proper maid, and in turn, a gentleman.

“There is no need to worry, Gonta, I understand that these tasks and standards of cleanliness are unfamiliar to you,” she reaches out her hand to adjust Gonta’s grip on the broom, “Under me you will learn all there is to being a maid and tasks like these will be easy to you in no time.”

Gonta perks up at her words, “Okay, Gonta understands! Gonta will sweep the dining hall until it is clean!”

Kirumi smiles, “That’s good to hear,” then she cracks down to business, “You need to finish in one minute.”

“Huh?”

After multiple attempts to finally clean to Kirumi’s standards, Gonta feels a soreness in his back he never felt before. He gets no chance to voice his distress before he is swept into the kitchen. On the counters, stacks upon stacks of dishes greet his eyes. Before him, Kirumi is simply walks up to the sinks unaffected by the sight. “Come here, Gonta.” At her command, he obediently walks over. His teacher asks him, “Have you ever washed dishes before?”

“No, Gonta no need plates in forest.” 

“Just as I thought,” she rolls up her sleeves, turns on the water to the sink and grabs a dish and soap rag. She begins a steady rhythm of scrubbing the dish clean at a slow enough pace to show Gonta. Kirumi instructs, “Simply cover the rag with soap and then scrub the dish until it’s clean. I will be gone shortly to grab some more soap from the warehouse. I expect you to get at least this pile done by the time I’m back,” and takes off. Gonta takes off his suit jacket to leave it on the kitchen island, then rolls up his sleeves. Kirumi glances back into the room to make sure he can manage on his own, then leaves for real.

When she returns with a couple of bottles of soap in her hands, she finds herself standing on a growing puddle of soapy water. She immediately drops the soaps and rushes to the source to find Gonta panicking over the sink, placing plates and turning faucets at random. She promptly pushes Gonta aside and turns the faucets off. When she turns to face the cause, he looks away in embarrassment and shame.

“Gonta, what happened here?” Kirumi asks sternly.

Her apprentice mutters an explanation, “Um, Gonta could not clean fast enough, so he thought turning on more water would help… Gonta is sorry.” 

“I told you only to scrub the plates, you understand that, correct?” she chastises.

Gonta seems about to tear up. “Y-yes.”

Kirumi looks around at the mess and estimates the time it will take to clean it and sighs. “Alright Gonta, I will take care of the dishes, but I expect you to mop up the water. Next time I give you a task, you need to follow it exactly, a maid always follows orders exactly and I can't have you making more messes, is that clear?” Kirumi feels a tad solemn about reprimanding him, but it is necessary, she tells herself.

After that reprimanding, all Gonta can reply with is, “Yes, Kirumi.”

After the soapy debacle in the kitchen, the duo move on to dormitories. Usually, Kirumi begins her dormitory rounds much earlier, but her time supervising Gonta holds back her schedule a bit. It’s fine, she thinks, soon enough he will be able to handle the simple chores on his own. Besides, a maid should be able to handle minor drawbacks such as this, though she dislikes calling Gonta a drawback. 

Inside the dorms, she describes this aspect of her duties to her pupil, “Occasionally, I knock on the doors and ask if anybody requires assistance. The requests range from taking their laundry to fixing a broken appliance.” They start with Tsumugi’s door to the right of Kirumi’s. She lightly raps on the door with her knuckles and waits. A moment later, the cosplayer reveals herself.

“Hey, Kirumi. Are you here for the laundry? I'll go get it.” She disappears into her room for a moment and reappears with a laundry basket, “Here you are.”

Kirumi retrieves the basket from Tsumugi hands. “Is there anything else you require at the moment?”

“No, everything's all right here. Thanks for taking my laundry, Kirumi.”

“It's no problem.” After that simple exchange Tsumugi returns to her room. Kirumi puts down the basket by the dormitory entrance then asks, “Can you handle the next room on your own?”

Gonta happily answers, “Yes, Master Kirumi!”

The new title catches her by surprise, “What prompted you to call me by that title? I am surely no master, I am a maid.” She stands by her comment, Kirumi Tojo is just doing her job. 

Gonta happily explains, “Because Kirumi is Gonta’s master!” This does not clear up anything.

“Pardon?” 

“Gonta was thinking, Kirumi deserves proper respect, like proper gentleman and Gonta is also Kirumi’s apprentice, so he should call Kirumi Master! Master is like teacher, right? But Kirumi more than that! Gonta want to show appreciation properly.” Kirumi is conflicted. A maid serves others, even if it looks like she is taking command, it is to serve, as a teacher to her students or a leader to their people. However, Gonta appears so pleased to have found an appropriate (though debatable) way to thank her. She can’t say refuse him.

“Alright, if you wish to refer to me by that title, you may,” Gonta lights up at that and she smiles a bit to herself, if it makes him happy then it’s acceptable. “Let’s move on with our task, shall we?”

The next door is Miu’s. Kirumi prompts Gonta forward and he loudly knocks three times on the door.

“Hey, what gives, who the hell is knocking so loud?” Miu interrogates angrily as she opens her door. At the sight of Gonta, she yells, “What do you want, shit-for-brains?” Kirumi bristles a bit at the insult against her pupil, but brushes it off. She needs to observe how Gonta responds.

Ignoring her rudeness in favor of returning kindness, Gonta politely asks, “Does Miu have laundry or other needs?”

“What?”

“Um, Gonta is helping Master Kirumi today, so Gonta asking what friends need.” Miu turns her head to Kirumi so fast she nearly gets whiplash.

With extreme astonishment, she asks, “This oaf’s help you? And he’s calling you master?” She laughs obnoxiously. Kirumi grimaces at the, admittedly, expected reaction.

Kirumi respond professionally, but with a light layer of scorn, “We simply came here to fulfill any requests you may have, and Gonta is being a wonderful help.”

Miu ignores her, “So~ Gonta, can I get you to call me master?” She puts a hand to a confused Gonta’s chest, “I bet I could make you feel real go-”

Kirumi abruptly interrupts the inventor’s inappropriate comments, “If you do not require our assistance then we will take our leave. Good day,” and pushes Miu’s hand off of Gonta then shuts the door. She hears a muffled ‘Hey!’, but ignores it. Gonta looks in shock.

“Kiru- Master Kirumi? Why you do that to Miu?” Of course Gonta would be unaware of the nature of such, advances. Kirumi must be more careful from now on to prevent anyone from taking advantage of him. Yes, she wants to teach him the ways of the maid which is built upon the completion of requests, but she is no pushover, and neither will her pupil if she has a say in it.

“Miu had no requests, so we must move on to the next room,” she answers simply.

Eventually, the duo receive every request. Most of them were absent or simply had laundry (Tenko was hesitant to give hers because of Gonta’s presence, but Kirumi reassured her he wouldn’t be in charge of it), but a few has some other requests. Angie wants the two of them to model for her later (and maybe a blood sacrifice) and Korekiyo needs the two of them to assist him while he explores his research lab. After they checked every room, they gather the baskets of laundry and head to Kirumi’s research lab.

The Ultimate Maid’s research lab not only houses a family of dummies, but a large laundromat, perfect for their new task. The master and apprentice set down the baskets they hauled from the dorms by the washing machines. “Alright, Gonta, our next task is the laundry. First, we separate the colors from the whites.” 

Kirumi works at an impossible speed that Gonta can’t keep up with, but Kirumi is patient. Every time Gonta encounters someone’s undergarments, he blushes and quickly places where it belongs. He is a rather innocent person, Kirumi analyses. At one point, Gonta accidently tears one of Kirumi’s uniforms. He apologizes profusely, he must also be very apologetic. What will she do about him? Currently, his goal seems impossible. How will he become a gentleman (she’ll have to ask what exactly he means later) if he is so out of touch? He interacts rather awkwardly with the others and fumbles with appliances the average person would consider rudimentary. She has a lot to teach him. He is not just innocent, he seems young.

While the two are busy, the other students gossip about the odd pair. 

“I’m telling you, the two of them are totally in on some bdsm shit!” Shouts Miu’s vulgar mouth. Everyone ignores her. Seeing this, she shrinks down, “H-hey, I’m telling the truth!”

The current inhabitants of the dining hall, who were previously happily discussing their research labs, reluctantly address her topic. Shuichi asks straight to the point, “What are you talking about, Miu?” 

Miu perks up and answers, “This morning the two of them came to my door, right? Well, Gonta totally called her master and everything!” 

“I still don’t understand how you reached the conclusion that…” Shuichi’s face reddens, “they’re in any sort of s-sexual relationship.” 

Kokichi pipes up, “Yeah, and frankly, I think you’re lying! Why should we believe you, you pig?” 

Miu’s proud facade deflates completely, “H-hey, I already told you I’m not lying.”

“Actually,” Tsumugi starts, “they came to my door, too. They asked for the laundry. Though, Gonta definitely didn’t call Kirumi master,” she begins a tangent, “That dynamic is pretty niche, anyway...”

Kokichi takes Tsumugi’s word as proof enough and hounds Miu about it, “Geez, can’t you at least make the lie more interesting?”

Angie raises her arms, “Oh, Angie just remembered! Gonta and Kirumi came to my door! Gonta definitely called Kirumi ‘master’!”

Tenko joins in, “That menace was with Kirumi at my door, too! He probably volunteered to do the laundry for perverted purposes!”

“The same happened at my door as well,” Korekiyo confirms, “Kirumi and Gonta knocked on my door, collected my laundry and asked if I had any other needs. During that time I heard Gonta say ‘Master Kirumi’. I did not press about it, however, so I have no answer to why that may be.”

Murmurs take over the room in an instant. Among them only more questions arise. Why are the two together in the first place? What happened that would cause Gonta to call Kirumi “Master”? Why is Kirumi going along with it? 

“Well, frankly, it’s none of my business, so I’m not going to gossip with you all.” Ryoma states. Shuichi silently agrees with Ryoma, rumors and gossip is an unnecessary garble that hinders the truth. “However, if you really want to know, why not ask them yourselves?”

On cue, the dining hall doors open to reveal the talk of the hour. The pair is holding baskets of freshly cleaned laundry, still warm from the dryer. Kirumi detects the tension in the gazes of her friends, but Gonta does not, and happily exclaims, “Master Kirumi and Gonta finished laundry!” Those words broke the dam to flurry of exclamations.

“See! I told you!” Miu yells. Others follow and it becomes a cacophony of surprised shouting. Kirumi sighs to herself. She expects such behavior to arise, but still she likes her days much better without it. Besides her calm presence, Gonta is a wreck. He doesn’t know why his friends are shouting, but he interprets it as a mistake he made.

“Did Gonta do something he wasn’t supposed to? Sorry!”

His teacher reassures him, “Do not worry, Gonta, this event is of no fault of your own. It seems we are not needed here at the moment. Let’s put the baskets where they need to go and we’ll move on to the next lesson.”

Gonta responds obediently, “Yes, Master Kirumi!” and they leave everyone in the dining hall more confused than ever. 

Good chapter break?

During dinner, Kirumi is by herself again. Her apprentice has a responsibility over the larvae in his lab, so they are separated for now. She almost regrets being alone at the moment, because her classmates take this opportunity to ask her invasive questions. “Please, if it is not urgent, wait until I have finished making dinner for any inquiries.”

“Fine~” whines Kokichi. He leaves the kitchen and the others follow his examples. Finally, she thinks, as she stirs the pot of noodles. If she knew this would happen, she probably never would have taken on this task. No, she can’t have thoughts like that, a maid is expected to complete her work no matter what it is. Right now, she has to teach Gonta to be a maid and a gentleman. What does she need in order to accomplish that? He’ll need grammar lessons in order to communicate efficiently. Etiquette is a must. Does he require help in hygiene? The water boils over the pot and scalds her hand. She restrains a shout by gritting her teeth, but her concerns are directed elsewhere from her injury. This has never happened before, she has never been so distracted. Is she prioritizing this task so much over everything else? Is it, him? She clears her mind, she has dinner to make.

Gonta has yet to return from his lab, so once again, Kirumi is faced with an onslaught of inquiries. “Are you and Gonta getting it on?” the resident brat asks. 

“Not at all, our relationship has no sexual aspects.” Some at the table blush at her blunt answer. 

“Okay, so, why were you with him so much today?” Kaede asks through her embarrassment.

“I am afraid I will have to refrain from revealing anything about our relationship until he is present.” A chorus of groans ring out.

Kokichi continues to pester, “Why not?”

With growing ire, she responds, “I believe it is poor taste to discuss it without his consent.”

“Oooh, does he give you consent when you push him down an-” Whack. Kaede stops Miu from saying any more. 

“Okay, we’ll wait until Gonta is here to ask more... questions. Can we leave Kirumi alone until then?” 

Everyone reluctantly agrees and Kirumi is grateful to the pianist. She doesn’t know how much longer she can last. The dinner is quiet for a few peaceful minutes, but of course, entomologists must eat too.

“Sorry, everyone!” Gonta bursts in. All eyes are on him just like earlier that day, and just like then Gonta doesn’t understand why. “Is something wrong?” 

Before the others can pester him, Kirumi informs him herself, “Everyone is curious as to why we have been spending time together recently. Would you like to explain our relationship to them?”

“Oh! Okay,” he addresses the table and enthusiastically announces, “Master Kirumi is helping Gonta become gentleman!” 

“And, um, if I may ask, what exactly does that entail?” Kiibo probes.

“Kir-Master Kirumi is elegant, really kind,” Kirumi can’t help but feel a little pride from his praise, “and is smart! Gonta admire Master Kirumi, so she show him how to be maid so he can be like Master Kirumi!”

“I see, that makes sense” Kiibo says. 

“What? That doesn’t clear anything up,” Kaito complains.

Shuichi gives his input, “It actually does. Kirumi is known for being refined and reliable, so Gonta must admire those qualities and asked her to help him cultivate those qualities.”

“And the ‘master’ thing?”

“Same thing, he admires her, so he wants to pay respect, isn’t that right, Gonta?”

“Yes! Is correct!”

“That’s just plain sweet,” Tsumugi coos.

“Nyeh, it’s still kinda weird.”

In the background, an anthropologist ponders the dynamic, “Hmm,” he hums ominously. He creeps out a few people beside him, but he doesn’t care. He’s too busy analysing the circumstances of such an odd relationship. It could be dangerous, but if it’s interesting, well, he’ll have plenty of chances to observe them.


	5. Kirumi Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kirumi is forced to face the nature of her and Gonta's dynamic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope the angst is good.

The next day Kirumi sees a significant improvement in Gonta’s efficiency. He cleans the morning dishes with no issues and he’s getting better at following her commands to the letter. Should she introduce some more demanding tasks? Or should she make sure his performance is perfect before moving on? She continues to ponder this as she tidies the halls. 

Currently, her apprentice is outside releasing the bugs that hatched from his lab. If Kirumi let herself have a say, she may have opposed it, but the others come before her. If her classmates want insects roaming around the academy, so be it, this merely means she may have more to clean. Anyway, what duties does she have today? Other than her usual routine, she and Gonta are appointed to accompany Angie and Korekiyo for some parts of the day. These will be perfect opportunities for Gonta to practice some one-on-one social interaction.

Outside, Gonta is having the time of his life. He sets down a large terrarium full of newly hatched monarch caterpillars around the outer areas of the academy. The trees here are large and healthy, as if meticulously maintained by someone. As he opens the lid, he wonders how well they’ll thrive here. The plants are great and abundant, but will they reproduce fast enough for these predator-less caterpillars? He thinks he has some ladybird beetles on their way to hatching, but will they be enough? For now though, he happily lets the caterpillars crawl into their new world. Out of all the insects he shows them, his classmates seem to like the butterflies the best. Everyone will be so happy to see the caterpillars turn into chrysalides and then into butterflies, he knows it! After instructing the caterpillars to behave in their new habitat, he picks up the terrarium and heads back to his lab.

Along the way, he sees Kirumi tending to the halls. Will she be happy with the caterpillars? “Master Kirumi!” He cheerfully greets. He has to crane his neck to see around the terrarium, but doesn’t obstruct his obviously happy expression. “Gonta just release caterpillars! They will become monarch butterflies, does Master Kirumi like butterflies?”

Oh, so the bugs being released are just butterfly caterpillars. They shouldn’t be too much a hassle. “If you and the others like the caterpillars then I will hold a high opinion of them as well.”

A look of confusion crosses her apprentice’s features, “Huh? Gonta not understand, why we have to like them for Master Kirumi to like them?”

“I consider all of you to have priority over me. I will withhold my personal opinions if it hinders the content of the majority.” 

Gonta pouts. She clearly has her own opinion of bugs, why won’t she let herself share them? He’ll understand if Master Kirumi is scared of bugs, he learned that a lot of people are. It’s a shame, he thinks, but he won’t force them, especially if they respect their role in the ecosystem. But still, if something bothers her, “Master Kirumi don’t have to do that! Is Master Kirumi scared of bugs? Gonta can tell bug friends, they leave her alone.”

An idea crosses her mind. Since Gonta is so intent to help, perhaps she can request something. “If you would not mind, can you inform them not to enter the buildings? I’m afraid it may be difficult to perform my duties if they are attracted to the flora within the academy.”

With no hesitation, Gonta accepts her request, “No problem! Bug friends are nice. Be right back!” Gonta sets down his terrarium and dashes back outside. Perhaps it’s not really so bad to ask for personal requests from Gonta. He is learning to be a maid, after all. A minor relief washes over her, but she doesn’t know why.

When Gonta returns, it’s ten o’clock. Their appointment with Angie is in thirty minutes. “Gonta, go ahead and return the terrarium to your lab and then head for Angie’s lab. I will catch up in a minute.”

“Okay!” he exclaims as he hefts the terrarium. In a light jog, he heads to the second floor. Hold on, his attire.

In a volume significantly louder than she is known to speak in, she calls out, “Gonta!” Her apprentice skids to a halt and nearly drops the terrarium. He turns in alarm.

“Is something wrong?” he asks. Kirumi catches up to him.

“Now that I have a better look, your clothes are badly torn.”

Gonta glances down to his feet and the frayed bottoms of his pants. His brows knit together at the sight of a big tear on his upper thigh, “Oh, is big problem, right?” 

“Of course, a maid is to maintain utmost cleanliness in and out of work. Come along, we must hurry to clean you up. Leave the terrarium.” She turns and heads to the dorm buildings as Gonta hurries to set down his cargo and catch up. 

“Gonta, take off your torn trousers and I will find you a new pair from the laundry. I want to take the dirty pair to my lab to repair later.”

“Um.”

“There is no need to be embarrassed, but if you would prefer, I will refrain from peeking.” Of course, that doesn’t help him be any less embarrassed, but Gonta has no idea how to communicate his grievances to her. The two are currently in Gonta’s dorm room. Unfortunately, Gonta has no trousers left in his closet… “If we do not hurry, we will be late to our appointment with Angie.” Well, If they’re in a hurry…

With extreme hesitation, Gonta slips out of his trousers, careful not to accidently catch his fingers on his undergarments. He finally gets them off and hands them to Kirumi. “Wait right here while I get you a new pair,” she command then heads out.

There is no clean pair anywhere. The majority of Gonta’s clothes are stacked up in the “dirty laundry” pile, and his pants happen to all be there. Hmm, Gonta can borrow some clothes, can’t he? Though, no one shares his size… her eyes wander and land on her torn skirt she had yet to repair. Gonta would like the freedom of movement a skirt gives him, right? She looks at the clock, ten-twenty. She can definitely adjust the skirt in five, and be on time for Angie’s appointment. Swiftly, Kirumi grabs the skirt, a needle, and a pair of scissors and gets to work. 

Gonta wonders why Kirumi is absent for so long, but can’t do anything about it. He is trapped in his room still without pants. 

Eventually, Kirumi returns. “Unfortunately, there were no clean pairs, but I have tailored a skirt for you to wear temporarily.” She flourishes a large skirt in front of him. It looks exactly like hers, from the cut to the fun pattern Gonta likes to associate with spider webs, except obviously not the same size. Can he wear this? He hesitates for too long, “Please hurry, we are about to be late for Angie’s appointment.” Well, if she says so!

“Okay.” With a bit of fidgeting, he dons the skirt. His outfit as a whole is odd, but Kirumi nods in satisfaction and leads them off to Angie’s lab. They make it to her door just in time at ten-twentyeight and knock on the main door to the research lab.

“Yah-hah~!” Angie greets as she opens the door to let them in, “Angie is so happy you came!”

“Of course, a request should never go unfulfilled,” Kirumi states as she enters. Gonta follows after, fully revealing his attire to the artist. 

“Oh my! A lovely skirt you have, Gonta!” Angie happily compliments. 

Gonta blushes and mutters softly, “Thank you…”

Angie, ever the whimsical one, flits to a new topic, “Atua has granted Angie a divine vision, and she must recreate it! If you two would be so kind as offer your bodies as the means in which she will paint this divine vision?”

“Of course,” Kirumi answers.

“Perfect! Now, go over there and I’ll tell you how to pose.” The duo follow her orders. “Okay… Kirumi, sit like you’re at a picnic and… Gonta, lie down on your side…no, your other side,” It takes a frustrating amount of time consisting of constant corrections to their forms and confusing instructions, but eventually Angie deems their poses perfect. Kirumi sits on her knees and pretends to pour tea into a cup. Her face sports a look of subdued dismay at the state of her partner. Gonta, meanwhile, lies completely on his side and raises an arm as if holding the cup Kirumi is filling. His jacket and terrarium have been discarded to the side of the room, leaving him in the skirt, shirt, and tie. His hair wildly cascades from his head, making the shape of a messy spiral on the floor. His eyes are closed and his mouth hints at a frown. They are expected to hold those positions until Angie is satisfied with her composition enough to paint from imagination. During this time with nothing else to do, the master and apprentice’s minds wander.

The maid, dubbed master, contemplates the roles she and the entomologist are supposed to play for each other. As a maid, her first and foremost goal is to serve. Right now, she is to serve her apprentice, as odd as it sounds. She is to serve as a master, to teach her apprentice what he needs then let him go. The apprentice, meanwhile, learns from the master, that is a given, and also… assists. She supposes the relationship is symbiotic. That is what she was thinking when she proposed the concept. The maid is serving her duty, better, even, with the apprentice. The apprentice is helping her complete her duties much faster. She enjoys it. No. She cannot consider his role as the apprentice as any kind of benefit to her. As a maid she should do her duty without expecting praise or thanks. Her pride as a maid hinges on her personal performance, relying on someone else is… degrading. She believes the tea she pours is not her burdens being placed upon someone else, it is the fruits of her service.

The entomologist, dubbed apprentice, thinks he is extremely lucky to have met someone like the maid. Most are scared his appearance, and even when he shows his interior character, they are disconcerted by his personality. As much as loves his forest family, he regrets not having any way of relating to humanity. He doesn’t like associating anything negative with his upbringing, he wants to become a gentleman for his family, after all, but this lack of understanding hinders him a lot. His master, though, she is one of the first real people he’s met that is so kind, elegant, everything he admires. He believes he is . The cup he holds is being filled, both by responsibilities from his kind master and from his desire to emulate her admired qualities. He is becoming what he believes to be… whole.

“Nyahaha! Thank you two so much! Atua’s divine will was carried out today!” The aching duo snap out of their positions in relief. 

“Wonderful. If that is all, we will be headed to Korekiyo’s research lab. If you need our service again, we will be there until five o’clock.” 

“Um, may Gonta see the painting?” he inquires. He is so curious as to what their work resulted in!

Angie accepts, and turns the easel to the others’ view. “Keep in mind, this is incomplete for now.” The painting, although clearly unfinished, beautifully reveals the intent of the artist.

Gonta can’t hold in a gasp at the sight of the painting. Their poses were perfectly mimicked, though the colors and shading were liberated from the artist’s sight by her imagination. The setting is of a grass plot in the shade, hiding against the harsh sunlight. The character Kirumi posed for appears to be an extremely wealthy woman out on a picnic with her daughter. She is ornately dressed in cold hues, making her seem like uncaring royalty, but it is clear she holds deeply fond feelings for her daughter. Gonta’s character is of a younger woman in far less extravagant clothing. Weakness defines this character. She is physically healthy, but the state of her tattered skirt, her hair, her expression all betray a weakness within herself. Odd, instead of tea, the beverage is a type of red wine in a very old bottle. The gaps on the shade highlight the blood red liquor traveling from the bottle to the glass, some spilling onto the daughter’s hand, along with the spiral shape of the daughter’s hair. There is a clear story behind this image, though the two believe it is unrelated to them.

“This amazing! Angie so talented!” Gonta gushes.

Angie humbly responds, “It was nothing, Atua’s creations are always precisely what they should be, and therefore perfection.”

Kirumi pulls back her sleeve to observe her watch, twelve-thirtyfive. “Let’s go, Gonta, punctuality is key.”

They grab their discarded belongings and exit the room. As the two head down the hallway, Angie calls them back, “Oh, one question, please!” They turn to oblige.

Gonta asks, “What is it, Angie?”

“Angie wants to know…” she starts, then turns to an ominous tone, “why does Kirumi keep Gonta so close? Is there a purpose?” The question runs up the maid’s spine, what does she mean?

Gonta seems unaffected and casually replies, “Because Master Kirumi help Gonta!” Angie seems unsatisfied.

“Yes, but is that all? Atua knows all, you see, so I advise you resolve your matters before he must interfere,” she snaps back to her usual persona, “That is all! Bye-onara~!”

Finally the pair can move on to their next exhausting task, assisting Korekiyo. The creepy student waits patiently for their arrival near the door. Upon their entrance, he greets, “Welcome, thank you for accompanying me while I explore my extensive lab. As you can imagine, it is a bit intimidating to tackle alone. Oh, lovely skirt, Gonta.”

“Thank you!”

Kirumi formally greets back, “It is no problem, we are happy to help. What is it that you require of us?” 

The anthropologist ponders his words for a moment, then informs the two, “I need someone to document my speculations and findings. Kirumi I trust that you are capable of this?”

“I am positive I can perform this task to your expectations,” she formally affirms.

“Perfect, let’s start with the first floor.”

Gonta, who had a little difficulty following the overly formal conversation, realizes he’s been left out. “Um, what can Gonta do?”

Korekiyo answers flippantly, “I suppose you can tag along in case I need a third hand. Otherwise, I’d appreciate it if you remained silent and refrained from being a hindrance.”

Kirumi clenches her fist for a second but catches herself at the pain from her burn. She is… disappointed, to say the most. She has a lot of trust in Gonta’s improvement, he can surely do more than just stand around. Besides, it’s unreasonable to thrust the brunt of work onto one assistant… when there’s two of them. It’s a matter of efficiency, is all.

“Gonta can do that…” he accepts, trying to hide his disappointment. 

Kirumi can’t stand for this she has an apprentice to teach, “Surely, you have a task that someone like Gonta can do. I recommend-”

“There is no need, and if I do encounter the occasion in which Gonta can help, I’ll let you know.”

“W-well,” Kirumi falters. Korekiyo raises a brow at her odd break of character. She knows she is stepping out of line, offering unwanted opinions and telling what her client should do, but, but, but what?

Gonta steps in before she can criticize her own behavior any further, “Is okay, Gonta is ready if Gonta is needed!” 

“Wonderful, now, if there are no more interruptions…” 

To the Ultimate Anthropologist, the countless relics in his lab are fascinating, from the old statues relaying the beliefs of those who passed to the nearly unrecognizable lumps of clay of unconfirmed origins. The Ultimate Maid, while holding a mild interest for the evolution of culture, grows bored within an hour. The Ultimate Entomologist enjoys listening to the anthropologist talk, but easily struggles to follow along when unfamiliar terms are introduced. For the entire time, Kirumi is diligently recording the speculations of Korekiyo. Occasionally, he requests Kirumi to fetch previous artifacts. She tries to defer the tasks to Gonta, but he frustratingly refuses to trust Gonta with anything, preferring to force Kirumi to multitask. It should be fine, though one instance erupts into something... distressing.

“Fine, I will entrust Gonta to handle the caged dog statue on the first floor and deliver it to me on the fifth level.” Kirumi sighs internally. Finally. 

Gonta perks up significantly, “Gonta will get statue, no problem! Gonta strong, so he won’t let Korekiyo down!” he promises, then excitedly scurries to the fancy stairs and Kirumi watches him descend. 

“Interesting,” Korekiyo suddenly states. Kirumi thinks he means another relic, so turns to him with her notebook and pen ready. When he continues, she realizes it’s not about the relics at all. In reality, Kirumi was not the only one multitasking. Every time Korekiyo demanded something unreasonable, he was really confirming his hypothesis about the pair’s dynamic. Ever since yesterday, there were clear signs of something darker cultivating within the relationship, shadows of an ugly intent the maid refuses to acknowledge. “You have become as dependent on Gonta as he is to you. How did this occur so quickly?”

“Pardon?” Kirumi questions sharply. 

“Oh, I merely observed that your relationship may or may not corrupt into unhealthy dependence for each other,” he answers unhelpfully. “I find it fascinating how another instance of the subservient revolt to become the new master.” 

Kirumi’s anger spikes suddenly, “Excuse me? Would you care to explain to me what exactly informed you of something so erroneous? I assure you, there is nothing more to it than Gonta desired assistance in his endeavor of becoming a gentleman, and I am providing it.”

Korekiyo sighs and raises a finger, “Kirumi, you sought out Gonta first, correct? Do you think it is perhaps possible that you were subconsciously seeking help in the form of a person who looks to be pathetic, but still so willing to help? You’d play into your fantasy of being the Master while convincing yourself you are serving him.” Kirumi’s fists clench again, and she ignores the returning pain.

Her eye involuntary twitches as she scowls. How dare he insinuate something so heinous of her? She interjects her point, “It may seem as though I am making him a maid, yes, but it is what Gonta requested. I am aware I lack the knowledge to directly help his endeavor, but teaching him some shared qualities is a service I am very capable of providing.”

“I am no ultimate psychologist, but I am the ultimate anthropologist, and I study humans. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe you are herding him to become a maid to serve you, instead of whatever you originally promised to him.”

“You are wrong!” She nearly screams. It’s not like that. She is a maid, a proper maid. She does not stoop so low as to shove her responsibilities onto someone else.

“Not only that,” he mercilessly continues, “I have proof of you sticking your duties onto Gonta. For the entirety of these past hours, I have seen you try again and again to shift your responsibilities. You have never done that with any other person here, so it is only reasonable to assume the special circumstance is the root of it.”

Kirumi can’t stand it anymore. Her usually impenetrable skin has been pierced by this annoying, creepy, intrusive person in front of her. She is completely ready to abandon her promise of helping him any longer and leaving. Damn her perfect streak of completed requests, this blasphemy is far more damning to her pride and reputation. “I won’t stand for these accusations, I’m leaving!” She throws down the notebook and pen in a huff and heads for the stairs. Korekiyo watches her leave and does nothing else.

“Master Kirumi?” On the flight between the third and fourth levels, Kirumi encounters the concerned face of her apprentice. He holds the dog statue awkwardly to accommodate the rise up the odd stairs. Right, just because she is abandoning her post does not mean Gonta must as well. He is his own person. He doesn’t need her and she doesn’t need him. “I am finished serving Korekiyo here. Why don’t you accompany him for the rest of the time he needs you?”

“But…”

“Whatever concerns you have are unnecessary, I am just leaving you to finish Korekiyo’s request on your own.” No, not leaving him with the responsibility, letting him.

He looks more concerned than before, but doesn’t pry, “Okay, Gonta will see you at dinner.” He then hobbles up the steps with the dog statue and that is that. Kirumi can leave, and attend her other responsibilities. Maybe she will finish early, and relax. That’s something she hasn’t done in a while.

Gonta, after hobbling up the many ridiculous steps while carrying the statue and managing the long skirt, reaches Korekiyo at last. The anthropologist looks contemplative and a little smug, though it’s hard to tell with his mask. In a contrast to how he treated Gonta earlier, he addresses him directly, “Thank you for getting the caged dog statue. Now, if you would be so kind as to put it back where you found it? 

“What? It not needed here?”He’s so tired!

“Yes, well, the location of the statue did not matter, I simply needed you gone for a moment.” Oh, that’s harsh. “But now that we’re alone, I’d like to ask some questions.”

Not knowing where this is going, he simply states, “O-okay.”

“What are your thoughts on Kirumi Tojo? Be honest.”

Well, that’s not hard! “Master Kirumi super nice, smart, really talented!” Korekiyo says nothing. Gonta excitedly elaborates, “Master Kirumi can do all kinds of things that Gonta can’t do. She can cook, knows how to clean… Gonta like her most because she is elegant! Gonta’s family like elegance, he don’t know why, though.” Korekiyo raises a brow, this is information he didn’t expect.

“Do you like her because you think your family would like her?”

He pouts a bit and furrows his brows, “Birth family noble, so they want Gonta to be noble… elegant is noble, right?”

“Not quite, but I understand what you’re saying.” He ponders over what he just heard. It corroborates what he had accused Kirumi of. Gonta’s family expects him to maintain the Gokuhara reputation. If he recalls correctly, Gonta has stated that his birth family dislikes his wild nature. He must want to be like Kirumi, because if the family likes her, they’ll like him. His relationship with Kirumi is, intricate. She always serves but takes demand, while he is expected to demand but desires to serve. 

That is all simple to say, but what will result from it in the Ultimate Academy?

Kirumi’s plans for a relaxing break do nothing to relax her. Even submerged in a pleasantly warm tub, she can’t clean her mind of unwanted thoughts. The water’s temperature melts them all into a pungent concoction and urges a strong desperation to get rid of it. Her flimsy attempts at summoning possible solutions evolve into worse and worse ideas. She should abandon maid duty, quit. Cut ties with Gonta. Cut ties with everybody and leave. Leave. Leave how? The videos. Her video. Graduation. 

In an extreme act of impulse, Kirumi launches out of the tub. However, as soon as the warmth disappears and the cold air assaults her, she slows down. How could she think such a thing? She ponders going back into the tub, but the water turned lukewarm. She thinks she might as well dry off and get ready to prepare dinner for everyone. She grimaces. A task she used to feel so neutral, no, obligated towards, is now a source of stress. Still, she has to do what she maybe has to do. She forces herself to open the closet and grab a change of clothes. This is fine, when she gets back to work she’ll be her usual self… The top of the shelf. 

Suddenly, all of the heated ire she felt in the tub comes crashing back to her. Right. Motive. Motivation. Motivation to uphold her reputation, pride, everything. Is it… in there? No, highly unlikely. It’s more likely that the target is someone she dislikes. Hates. That would be perfect, win-win, symbiosis. The motive will be her new request and Monokuma gets what he wants. 

She hurriedly throws on her uniform and then grabs the monopad from the perch originally meant to keep her away from it. Such good that did. Both of her hands grip the device tightly. A finger shakily hovers over the on button, but the realization of the consequences of this action restrains her. She made a promise to all of the people here. She has so much she still has to do, especially for-

“Gonta Gokuhara!” the device screams. When did she turn it on? Images of her apprentice flash on the screen and teases something in the back of her mind. “As you may already know, Gonta was separated from his family for ten years. His family mourned, ‘Oh where, oh where could our son be?’ Desperate to find him, the noble and wealthy family hired you!” When? She doesn’t remember this. “You were like a godsend to them. Not only did you work tirelessly to find their son, you take care of them as the grief consumed them.” She can’t stop staring at the screen. She could easily turn it off, but why should she?Something distant is coming back to her. “Finally, Gonta reunited with his family! This would have been the end of your career with the Gokuharas, but what is this? He just keeps falling back into trouble! His table manners are awful, he won’t stay in his clothes, and is an overall embarrassment to the noble family! So once again the Gokuharas hits you to not only mold him into the perfect son, but to protect him from anymore trouble.” 

That’s right, she has a job to do. Shit, fuck, how could she forget this? The memories rush back to her. The pristine mansion. Sobbing parents. Missing child’s poster. Sobbing reunion. Tutoring lessons… Gonta needed her. She recalls a time when Gonta told her he missed her when she left to do a commission, and that he fell apart when attending a formal dinner with his family and recruiters from Hope’s Peak. 

The video isn’t done. “But look at this, Gonta is now trapped in here with you. His family is once again forced to mourn a missing son. What will you do now?” Finally, the monopads turns off by itself. She stares at a black screen in silence. 

Korekiyo is obviously mistaken, she thinks bitterly. No, it’s clear that Kirumi does not need Gonta, but that he needs her. This video clearly states it. She has a new request, she’s always had a request, a request that must be prioritized over all else. This whole time she was doing what she was supposed to. Now, she needs to complete it. After that, she can finally, truly, rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)
> 
> Also, like, anyone else get in those situations where they have to wait for someone because you're trapped in your room for one reason or another? Am I relatable or what?


	6. Kirumi Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A body is found, and the investigation starts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, longer chapter here! Enjoy!

As always, Kirumi prepares dinner. As always, Gonta offers his help. Unlike always, they do not chat, the awkward silence is only interrupted by Kirumi’s commands to grab some cheese from the pantry or to watch over the pot. The unusual behavior confuses Gonta, every time he tries to initiate a conversation, Kirumi dismisses him rather than indulge him. She even seems distracted, he can tell because she’s only doing the bare minimum for cooking pasta. It’s as plain as pasta can be. Her eyes dart around, often landing on him for a few uncomfortable seconds at a time. He wishes she would tell him what’s on her mind…

“Gonta.” 

“Huh?” Is she going to open up? “Yes, Master Kirumi?”

“I want you to know how devoted I am to your development into a… gentleman,” she states carefully, as if holding something back.

“Of course Gonta know! Gonta appreciate Master Kirumi very much!” She doesn’t seem satisfied with his response, because she shuts her eyes and furrows her brows in frustration. “Um, Master Kirumi?”

Kirumi takes a deep breath, holds it, then releases it. While simple, the action seems crucial to her next move. “Gonta, please, whatever happens, I want you to think of yourself first.” 

“Huh? But, Gonta want to help everyone-”

Kirumi suddenly interrupts with devoutness and extra volume. “I understand that desire, but I have a desire as well, Gont!” Gonta is frozen, mouth hanging open and eyes widened. “I was present when you offered to lay down your life for the others, going so far as to implore them to use your… corpse as a shield,” she nearly sobs, “Please understand, I want to see you safe just as much as you want to see me safe.” Then, with her authority as the unofficial master, she fiercely implores, “Promise me you will think of your own life, first, do you understand me?” She nearly screams at the end, but she doesn’t care. Gonta needs to obey.

Gonta has no idea what to say. This so oddly alarming, his heart’s pace quickens and he can’t slow it. He… can’t promise something like that! Although, Kirumi looks so desperate, “Okay! Gonta promise Master Kirumi! Gonta will think of himself! He will be safe!” 

Kirumi is breathing heavily, though she starts to calm down after hearing his promise. Good, perfect, he has accepted her request. It’s nice to be selfish once in awhile, right? 

The spider caught the fly.

As always, dinner is prepared. As always, the students gather to eat dinner. Unlike always, Kirumi does not desire to serve everybody.

\---

It’s morning, before the announcement that forces everybody out of their sleep plays. Kokichi enters the dormitory hunting. There’s… prey he has to play with. “Ding-dong, bing-bong,” the monitors chime. Ten minutes later, the prey, weak in all aspects except in body, exits his room. “Hey, Gonta!” he calls. He makes sure to put on a facade of friendliness, though obviously fake to anybody who’s met him. Anybody except Gonta, apparently.

“Oh, good morning, Kokichi!” the prey cheerfully greets back, completely unsuspecting of the other. Kokichi thinks, didn’t he live in the jungle, or something? He should be able to tell when something’s going to hurt him. 

He continues the act, “I’ve been feeling chatty lately, so let’s take a walk, have a conversation. What do you say?”

Gonta seems surprised by the liar’s proposal for a friendly excursion. He’s not usually this nice. Although, as much as he’d like to, he has responsibilities to take care of. “Oh, Gonta a little busy…”

“Come on, can’t you do whatever it is you need to do while you talk to me?” he goads. 

That seems reasonable, “Hmm, okay!” Gonta pipes up, “Come with Gonta, he has to check on caterpillar friends!” 

Great, now Kokichi can get the answers he wants.

Maybe he’s not getting the answers he wants, today. Gonta excitedly hunts for his caterpillars among the trees as Kokichi struggles to keep up with him. How is he going to talk to Gonta if he’s always fifty steps away? His pant leg catches a branch and nearly tears the fabric. Frustratedly, he yells, “GONTA!” The specified boy skids to a halt at the holler of his name. He turns and sees Kokichi running towards him. When the other finally catches up, he takes a moment to breathe heavily. Through his labored breathing, he complains, “I said I wanted to take a walk, not a fucking run!” 

“Sorry! Gonta will slow down.” The two continue their walk through the wooded areas of the academy. Oh, a bug. Ooh, another one, so interesting. They’re just caterpillars. They’re not interesting, useful, even if they turn into butterflies Kokichi won’t care. 

Kokichi grows bored of the excursion, so he decides to get what he came for. “Gonta, let me ask you something.”

“What is it?” Gonta responds, still walking.

“I’ve just been wondering, why do you wanna be a gentleman so much? Especially since it looks like it’ll be impossible for you.”

“...” He stops. Is he that offended already? “Gonta’s family say same thing…” he says solemnly. Oh, this is new.

“Which one, the wolves?” he jokes. It’s obviously not the wolves.

“No, birth family,” he pauses again, “Family think Gonta too wild, blame forest family. Family want Gonta to be refined, smart, um, not Gonta… Gonta try to be what family want, but also still be Gonta. It not work… Family still angry, and keep blaming forest family. Gonta love forest family, and they love him, too… um,” he struggles to explain further. How annoying.

“Sooo,” Kokichi impatiently urges, “you’re trying to live up your family’s expectations because you love your forest family, and you want your other family to like them too, is that it?” That’s kind of boring, in his opinion.

“Yes!” He gains a happy expression, someone gets him!

“Doesn’t that seem impossible to you at all?”

The joy disappears and with concern, Gonta asks, “What you mean?”

“I mean, do you like your wolf family more than you birth family?”

“U-um…” His hesitation tells Kokichi everything.

“You obviously like your wolves way better, so why are you trying to appease those snobs so much? No wonder you can’t do it, you don’t like them!”

“Is not true! Gonta li-”

Kokichi interrupts with dramatic exasperation, “He likes everybody, I know. Yeesh, that’s so boring! Is there nothing else at all? Is there no one else at all you were going through all of these stupid hoops for?”

“No…?"

“Really?” His voice becomes more aggressive, “Absolutely no one besides your family? Friend? Maid? Your fucking pet dog, maybe?”

“No!”

“THEN WHY DO YOU EVEN DO ANYTHING? Do you care that much about strangers? That’s practically what we are! How stupid are you to not realize we’ll betray each other!”

“No, Kokichi wrong! No one will betray friends!” Gonta is growing distressed, and it shows like an open book. His eyes dart around frantically to look at anything besides his tormentor. He spots something small from far away. A gasp, them he dashes towards it, ignoring Kokichi’s annoyed shouts. He jumps over a bush then kneels down in front of a patch of crushed plants. Under one of the flattened leaves, the gory remains of an innocent caterpillar’s cocoon lays crushed. He starts to tear up, why did this happen?

Kokichi nearly trips over the bush Gonta jumped through, and looks amusedly at the scene. Gonta is despairing over a dumb bug. Tracks of large, unnatural footprints trail from the crushed cocoon to the main building. It must have been an exisal. “Look at that, a teeny bug got squashed because a bear came by.” The other doesn’t respond to his jesting. “That’ll be you, you know, if you don’t smarten up and get your priorities straight. Someone bigger and meaner will stomp all over you. Well, just meaner, I guess.” Still, Gonta doesn’t respond. He instead slowly rises and leaves without a word. Shadows cover his eyes. Good. The idiot might learn something. Kokichi watches Gonta’s back as he leaves. He’s gotten what he wanted, now it’s time to see what plays out. Observing him is pretty entertaining. Hey, wasn’t someone else doing something like that, too?

\---

Maki guards her lab as usual, waiting for Kirumi to deliver her breakfast. She comes on time, eight-twenty, pretty early. The maid seems to be in a rush. The assassin doesn’t pay it any mind and eats quietly.

Rantaro wakes up early, so he wanders outside in the courtyard. He sees Kokichi running around, travelling from the main building to the dorms. He wonders what he’s been doing. For a while longer, he lounges in the courtyard, enjoying the darkness disperse for the for the sun. He hears the announcement, it must be eight. Since he’s already dressed, he goes straight to the dining hall.

Gonta heads to the kitchen to once again assist Kirumi. He greets her when he enters, then gets to work grabbing plates to set up the table. The dining hall is amok with the typical chatter, a steady drone of white noise emanating from everybody’s mouths. He eats quietly. No one notices his sorrow. 

“Weeelllll, I’m bored, see ya!” Kokichi announces suddenly, and unnecessarily, some think. As if he wants everybody to take note of his exit, he walks to the door slowly then finally disappears. 

“Weird kid,” Ryoma states bluntly.

Eventually, the others disperse as well. “See ya, losers,” Miu rudely farewells.

Korekiyo stands, “I’ll be taking my leave as well, I’ll be in my lab if anyone needs me, ” and leaves like the rest. 

“I’ll be going to finish the laundry,” Kirumi states, “Gonta, if you would be so kind as to clear the remaining dishes? When you’re done, meet me at my lab.”

“Okay....” he says, simply, still solemn about his excursion with Kokichi. With images of the dead caterpillar still haunting him, he cleans the table. Satisfied, the maid leaves.

After clearing the dishes, Gonta takes some extra time to wash them off. Kirumi didn’t ask him too, but he thinks she’ll appreciate it. What Kirumi did ask for is for him to report to her in her lab. They must have some more chores to do. He dries his hands and leaves for the second floor. On the way there, he sees Maki still guarding her lab and pays it no mind. Everything is as usual.

Three knocks on the lab door. It creaks open just enough for Gonta to see Kirumi. “Hello, Gonta,” she greets simply and formally, “we have another request from Korekiyo today. We’ll be going to his lab now.” Without even letting Gonta is we the inside of her lab, she heads for the new destination. Gonta falls into step behind her. 

Kirumi is still acting off. Gonta wants to urge her to open up, but yesterday’s events scare him a bit. Instead, he just asks about their next task, “Does Korekiyo want to explore lab more?”

She answers simply, “Yes.” The rest of the walk is silent. 

\---

Kaito speculates dragging Maki away from her lab to interact with the other students. He’s not sure how, though. Should he get some of the others to help him? No, that would just corner her and make her push them away more. He decides to wander. Maybe he should see his cool lab, again? On the second floor, he walks at a leisurely pace, but someone interrupts his walk. They’re panicking.

Angie unlocks the door to her lab then locks it again behind her. What should she make today? She decides to set out some of her paints when someone knocks on her door. It’s simple, three knocks, consistent volume. She opens the front door to reveal a calm and collected individual.

Maki is still standing vigilant at her post. Her dirty plate is still by her. Should she go put it back, or wait for Kirumi to pick it up? Suddenly, a terrifying announcement is made.

Himiko enters her lab. With her detection magic, she immediately finds something wrong with her lab. It’s not too much of a bother, there’s a lot more left of what’s been taken, anyway. The bells ring out, she hears the announcement.

Shuichi panics in front of the cabinet of poisons in his lab. His fear comes to life, the body discovery announcement plays. “A-hem, a body has been discovered! Everyone, please gather in the Ultimate Anthropologist’s research lab.” 

Panic overtakes every student and can be heard by the growing volume of their frantic dash to the second floor. Through the damaged sliding door of the lab, the first things they see are Kaito, Angie, Kirumi, and Gonta distressing over the body of Korekiyo Shinguji, lying mangled in a pile of his own blood. 

\---

The lab is eerily dim, the lights too weak to illuminate anything more than necessary. They don’t need to see more, anyway, the copper smell of blood tells them everything they need. Still, the inhabitants want to observe the area. Near the body, a dog statue lies on it’s side. Piled around it are an old spear and an upright chair. The door’s edges are splintered, along with the door’s frame. However, the original witnesses of the body don’t seem to care about those details.

Gonta stares. This… this can’t be happening. The strong smell of blood stings, the sight repulses. Tears are already falling from his eyes and he can hardly contain his sobs. His legs shake and threaten to collapse. Their friend is dead. He failed. He falls to knees, no longer able to support himself. He doesn’t want to see the gory sight anymore, so covers his face with his hands and lets his long hair overflow in front of his eyes. In this position, he freely wails. The people behind him see his shoulders shake as the sobs rip through him. Some look at the scene in ire, others in pure terror, but no matter the students’ states, the bears appear on cue.

“Rise and shine, ursine!” The cubs shout cheerfully. The presentation jars against the mood of fear and sorrow, and irks them to no end.

“W...WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?” Kaito screams. 

Monokuma happily divulges, “Why, it’s the start of the killing game, of course!”

The cubs continue their father’s explanation, “Fuck yeah! One of you guys offed this loser here!” Monokid mocks.

“Oh, how gory... “ Monofunny mumbles before vomiting, “kerblehblehbleh!”

Kaede denies this, “No, that can’t be right! You must have done this!”

“Baa-hahaha! As if!” Monukuma cackles, “One of you is absolutely responsible for this. Now, if you would all stop your yapping, I’ve got a present for you!” On that cue, the Monocubs pull out a stack of devices. “It’s the monokuma file!” Silently, the cubs deliver a device to each student. “This has all the information you need about the corpse. I expect you all to make good use of it, because otherwise, the killer will get away!”

As the other students start an argument with Monokuma about his credibility, one comforts a crying heap. Gonta appreciates Kirumi’s gentle caresses on his back, but he can’t muster the strength to hold back his weeping. Luckily, Kirumi doesn’t expect him to, so they sit together silently. 

“You all better hurry up with investigation otherwise I promise all of you will be executed after the class trial,” Monokuma grits through his teeth. He tires of the student’s bickering, and takes his leave, “See you at the trial~!” The cubs follow him as always, and the students are alone again.

The unofficial leader takes charge, she can’t let her friends die at the hands of Monokuma, so she calls attention to herself and announces, “Guys, I know this is really hard, but we have to work together to solve this. We have to work to survive at all costs, we can’t let the killer win!” The students, used to Kaede’s encouraging speeches, gather themselves back together. 

One struggles to stand, but manages. He agrees with Kaede, they all have to survive together. Kirumi sees him and addresses him, “Gonta, did you hear Kaede’s speech?”

Tears still fall from red and swollen eyes, but his face steels into determination, “Y-yes, Gonta want to survive with everybody so Gonta will work hard!” 

“I’m glad.” Kirumi really is he’s taking her request seriously, and she can thank Kaede for that, she supposes. 

Kaede turns to the detective, “Shuichi, you’re the expert, so guide us on how to solve this!” He quickly stands straighter at her demand, then takes the reins.

“Right, first, let’s look at the monokuma file. The basic information will be a good start for us.”

\--Monokuma File--  
The victim is Korekiyo Shinguji, the Ultimate Anthropologist. He was found surrounded by his blood in his ultimate research lab at 10:00 AM. His body fell from the upper floors of his lab and was killed upon impact. There are traces of chloroform around his mouth and a few small burns on his clothes.

“Odd, there’s no time of death…” Shuichi mumbles.

Truth Bullet: Monokuma File  
It shows the basic explanation of the corpse’s status, but shows no time of death.

“Shuichi, should we investigate the crime scene, now?” Kaede inquires.

“Sure, but It’d be smart to split up into teams, the culprit could hide some evidence.”

At his suggestion, the students form pairs naturally. First and foremost, the four who discovered the body answer inquiries from Maki and Kiibo. Maki starts curtly, “Tell us everything that happened up to discovering the body and leave nothing out.”

The maid obliges, “Of course, it began when Gonta and I arrived at the door to fulfill a request from Korekiyo.”

Before the discovery, the pair quizzically investigates the locked door. Knocking does not summon the anthropologist, so Gonta concludes that he is not there at the moment. Kirumi denies this, “It would be very odd for Korekiyo to not be on time.”

“Then, what do we do? Door not open…”

“This is concerning, Korekiyo wasted no time greeting us the last time we were here. Something may be wrong.”

Gonta gasps and the discovery of the caterpillar corpse replays in his head. “Korekiyo could be in trouble!” he shouts in a panic, “But door locked, how we help him?” 

“Let’s not worry too much. For now, let’s find some people who can help us.” The former suggestion to calm down doesn’t register, but the latter does.

“Gonta will get help right away!” he exclaims, then dashes off to find the closest person. Kirumi also sets off to find someone she believes can help.

Kaito interjects into the story, “Oh yeah, that’s when Gonta comes running towards me like a madman. He dragged me to the door asking if I knew how to open it. I told him I didn’t even know it could lock.”

Angie also testifies, “Ah, I have had a similar experience. Kirumi came to my door and inquired if I could assist.”

“I sought her out because I believed she could have some insight about the locks. Angie’s lab doors have locks as well, after all.”

Angie continues, “So, anyway, when we got to the door, Gonta was like, totally freaking out, right?”

“Gonta, calm down!” Kaito pleads. “Look, I can try and force open the door-”

“That will not be necessary!” Kirumi calls out. The boys stop their mini frenzy and turn to them. Satisfied, she refers to Angie, “If you could, please.” The artist walks past the distressed boys to calmly observe the door. She scrutinizes it closely, humming as if she is close to solving the problem. When she’s done, she turns to the group.

“I can find nothing, so Atua says to break the door open!” Kaito guffaws. Kirumi, as if finding nothing wrong with the notion, agrees.

“Alright. Gonta, disregard any damage and force open the door with all of your strength!”

“Okay!” Immediately, Gonta grabs the door’s handle with one hand puts a palm on the frame with the other. With a grunt, he smashes the door open. A thud accompanies the sound of the wood fracturing. Meanwhile, Kaito silently complains about his disregarded offers of help.

Kiibo comments, “So that’s when you found his body, correct?”

Gonta answers, “No, room was pitch dark, no could see anything.”

“Until I turned on the lights, we had no clue that Korekiyo’s body was laying there,” Kirumi adds.

Angie squishes her face with her palms in pretend shock, “Oh, you all forgot to mention the flash of light!” she exclaims.

Kaito questions, “What light? It was pitch black.”

“No, for just a second, glimmers of orange light flickered and disappeared. Angie has a good eye, so you can trust her word!”

“I guess we’ll add that to our list of evidence,” Kiibo states.

“Is odd…” Gonta mumbles to himself.

“What is?” Kiibo asks. “Don’t hesitate to give any details, even if you think it’s useless, tell us.”

“Um, smell of blood is strong, but Gonta no could smell it before opening the door.”

“Is it possible the door was just blocking it?” Kaito suggests. 

“No! Too much blood, and door not tight enough.”

“Okay… we’ll take your word for it,” Kiibo addresses the rest of the group. Any other details you can recall?

“Hold on, I have a question,” Maki interrupts, “You said there was another sound besides the door, what was it?”

“Oh, that’s easy, it must’ve been that weird dog statue,” Kaito points to the overturned artifact and elaborates, “It must’ve been knocked over when Gonta tore the door open.”

Maki sighs exasperatedly, “How would it do that?”

Insulted at her disbelief of him, Kaito justifies his claim, “Well, that spear could have knocked it over…” he looks at the chair, “Maybe the spear fell over and pushed the dog statue off the chair!”

“Well, I guess we should disregard the noise for now, if no one has an answer for it,” Maki dismisses.

“Hey!” 

Truth Bullet: Dog Statue and Props  
A dog statue lays on its side next to a chair and spear. It is speculated to have fallen when Gonta opened the door.

Truth Bullet: Kaito’s Testimony  
Kaito claims that Gonta dragged him to Korekiyo’s research lab. He couldn’t figure out the door, and when it was clear that no one would open it from the inside, he offered to force it open, but Kirumi declined and had Gonta do it instead..

Truth Bullet: Angie’s Testimony  
Angie claims that Kirumi summoned her to Korekiyo’s research lab to inquire about the door. Angie’s own lab has locks on it, but she could offer no helpful suggestions about Korekiyo’s door. She saw a flash of orange light before disappearing.

Truth Bullet: Kirumi’s Testimony  
Kirumi claims Korekiyo made another request for her and Gonta that was to be carried out that day. He only talked to her about it.

Truth Bullet: Gonta’s Testimony  
Gonta claims that when he forced open the doors, a strong scent of copper assaulted their noses. Gonta claims there was no hint of the smell before the action, and that he should’ve smelled it through the door because there was so much blood.

Himiko gazes at the small piles of ash littering the floor. She can almost recall something, but Tenko interrupts her thoughts, “Awful, isn’t it? Though, I guess I can’t be too sad over the creep’s death.” Insult to the dead aside, Tsumugi joins in.

“What are you two looking at?”

“The ash,” the mage answers without bothering to look up.

“Oh yeah, that stuff’s all over the place,” Tsumugi observes, “Even on poor Korekiyo.”

“We should find out where it came from,” Tenko advises.

Tsumugi agrees, “Yeah! Let’s see if there’s a trail, follow the yellow-brick road.”

“Huh?” 

“Oh, it’s nothing,” the cosplayer tilts her head to look at the upper floors, “I think it’s an extra good idea to search further around the crime scene, I’ve just been plain curious about those cloths.” She points a finger up towards the upper floors. There are distinct patterns of fabrics scattered around the room.

“I didn’t even see those before. Good job, Tsumugi!” Tenko praises. She grabs for Himiko’s hand, “Let’s go investigate the upper floors!” Himiko reluctantly obeys.

As it turns out, every cloth is thoroughly covering a chandelier or lamp. Upon further investigation, not every light is covered, just the ones with no visible method of turning on or off. The trio, after confirming the same is true for the fourth floor, climb the next set of stairs. Himiko has her head down the entire, as if about to fall asleep walking, which is why she notices another pile of ash conspicuously placed at the edge of the stairs. When she stops to look closer at it, she tugs back on Tenko’s relentless grip and alerts her of the clue. “What is it, Himiko? Did you find something?”

“Oh my, there’s ash here too, huh? Why do you think there’s such a small bit of it here of all places?” Tsumugi inquires.

Tenko ponders, “Himiko, do you have any idea how it ended up here?”

“Magic.”

Tenko shouts in shock, “Someone besides you can use magic?” 

“That, or Himiko just incriminated herself...” Tsumugi mutters mainly to herself.

Himiko rejects the accusation, “No, the culprit themself can’t use magic, they took a magic item from my room!” Tenko gasps.

“Someone stole from you? We have to find this menace, fast!”

“I don’t think you’re prioritizing the right things here,” Tsumugi comments a bit exasperated, “Anyway, what is it that was taken from your room? It might be important.”

“It’s enchanted rope. It disappears upon command,” the mage answers cryptically.

“Maybe we should move on…” Tsumugi starts, then gasps at a sight at the top of the stairs. “Is that?” She runs up and holds a stray checkered cloth for her partners to see.

Tenko yells, “That menace! Let’s interrogate him right now! I bet he’ll talk when I throw him down the stairs!”

Himiko moans, “Sounds like effort, let’s just say he did it and get this investigation over with.”

Truth Bullet: Cloths on Lights  
Every non-extinguishable light in the lab has been covered by cloths. The rest of the lights are free of cover.

Truth Bullet: Ashes  
Traces of ash have been spotted on the corpse, scattered on the floor, and on the fourth flight of stairs.

Truth Bullet: Kokichi’s Scarf  
Kokichi’s scarf was found at the top of the fourth flight of stairs. It is slightly damp.

Truth Bullet: Himiko’s Testimony  
Himiko claims that some magic string is missing from her research lab.

Shuichi scrutinizes the corpse. Everything the monokuma file claims is indeed factual, including the traces of chloroform. He knows for a fact the culprit took it from his room because the bottle is clearly missing from its place on the cabinet, a circle lacking in dust signifying its previous spot. He beats himself over the lack of foresight, but stops in favor of relaying his findings to Kaede. “Everything checks out, including the chloroform that came from my lab.”

“That’s great and all, but why doesn’t it tell us the time of death?”

“I guess Monokuma doesn’t want to make it too easy for us. Speaking of time, I should clarify something about the chloroform. It’s extremely volatile, meaning it’ll lose its effectiveness as soon as it’s exposed to oxygen.”

“So you’re saying the culprit had to take the whole bottle, not just douse it on a rag and carry it around with them?”

“Exactly. Although, I wonder what they used to chloroform him. They surely didn’t just wave the bottle under his nose.”

“Yeah, otherwise there wouldn’t be such evident traces left on him,” she concludes.

“Where is that menace? I’ve got a beating reserved just for him!” Tenko shouts as she descends the stairs. Her partners run behind her, failing to restrain her. 

“Hold on, Tenko!” Tsumugi pleads. In her hand, a checkered scarf. 

Kaede stops the trio to urgently ask them, “What is that?”

“It’s that little menace’s scarf! He’s clearly the culprit, so where is he hiding?”

Rantaro and Ryoma enter the conversation. “Are you guys talking about Kokichi?” Rantaro asks.

Kaede answers. “Yeah, apparently these three found his scarf on the upper floors.”

“That’s interesting,” Ryoma’s deep voice states. He lowers his cap and glares, “Because Rantaro and I were just discussing alibis, and he mentioned seeing Kokichi out and about before the morning announcement.”

Tsumugi questions, “Why would that be important?”

“Well, this murder clearly took a lot of setup, so we were thinking that the culprit must’ve prepared this last night,” Rantaro explains, “Combined with that scarf, my testimony will really drive him into a corner, huh?”

Tenko interrogates, “And what were you doing out of the dorms, huh?”

He chuckles, “Yeah, I guess I’ll be suspected too, huh?”

Ryoma readdresses the main concern “If we want to get any more answers, we gotta find him, first.”

“Now that I think about it, was Kokichi even here at all?” Himiko wonders.

“That menace is hiding!”

“I think it should be alright, we can interrogate him during the class trial,” Rantaro suggests.

Truth Bullet: Traces of Chloroform  
Chloroform is volatile, meaning it will lose its effectiveness when in contact with oxygen. A rag was definitely used to administer it, theorized to be Kokichi’s scarf.

Truth Bullet: Shuichi’s Testimony  
Shuichi claims the bottle of chloroform from his research lab is missing.

Truth Bullet: Rantaro’s Testimony  
Rantaro claims he saw Kokichi out of the dorms before the morning announcement.

“You really did a fucking number on this door!” Miu marvels. She, along with Gonta and Kirumi, investigate the odd state of the lab entrance. 

“Sorry.”

“Miu, is there something wrong with the door?”

“Yeah there fucking is, there’s no lock, too much of the wood is fractured, and there’s burn marks on the wall and door. What are you, blind?”

“I see, so there is no lock,” she puts a gloved finger on the edges of the door and along the frame, “This is odd, small splinters from the door are stuck to the frame.”

“No shit, and look at the scorched part on the door. There’s even a burn mark on the wall by it. Damn, what were you trying to do, Tarzan? You opened it so hard you caused friction fire! Are you that rough duri-” A gloved hand shuts her mouth.

“Gonta not think he open that hard,” he murmurs.

“Didn’t Kaito say you knocked the statue over? You’re definitely jacked enough to do that…” she sees a spot of blood on the statue, “Who the fuck is smearing a corpse’s blood around?” Miu questions angrily.

“Someone is disturbing the crime scene?” Kirumi inquires. She observes the statue. Splatters of blood wrap around the side and bottom of the statue. “This is no good, we need to preserve the scene.”

“Eh, whatever, can’t be a big deal,” Miu dismisses.

Truth Bullet: Burn Marks  
There is a scorch mark on a part of the door and on a section of the wall behind it. They align horizontally.

Truth Bullet: State of the Doorframe  
Splinters from the door are stuck to the frame. 

Truth Bullet: Dog Statue  
A dog statue lays on its side next to a chair and spear. It is speculated to have fallen when Gonta opened the door. It is extremely heavy and there is blood on the side and bottom of it.

“So, Maki, what is your opinion about what we learned?” Kiibo asks.

“I think the culprit is stupid for setting up all of these weird props for nothing. That, and Kaito’s location before the announcement is suspicious.

Kaito butts in, “Hey! What about you, huh? You were close enough to the crime scene to be suspicious too!”

“My lab is on this floor, I was there the whole time.”

“Oh yeah, I saw you. I guess you were.”

Kiibo is stunned, “Backing down so easily… Anyway, Maki, since you were also close to the crime scene, do you have anything that could be useful? If not, maybe just tell us what you did until now?”

“...Alright, I headed to my lab as soon as the morning announcement played. Kirumi gave delivered my breakfast a little after, eight-twenty, I think. She was early, and didn’t pick up my plate, later. Anyway, I stayed there the rest of the time until the body discovery announcement played.”

“Thank you, that helps us a lot.”

Truth Bullet: Maki’s Testimony  
She claims she was at her research lab the entire time. Kirumi was early with her breakfast and never picked them up.

“Bing bong, ding dong,” the monitors light up. “Are you guys tired of investigating, yet? Please gather at the Shrine of Judgement in the courtyard! See you soon!”

“What the fuck? We didn’t connect anything!” Miu complains.

Shuichi sighs, “I guess we’ll just have to work with what we have... “

A stampede of footsteps echo from the floor as they simultaneously leave for the shrine. No one says a word until they arrive at the fountain and monokuma statue, along with a certain missing student. 

“Where were you this whole time?” Kiibo interrogates.

Kokichi answers unhelpfully, “I was just doing some investigating of my own, that’s all.”

“Do you care to tell us what exactly what you were doing?”

“Now’s not the time, we should do all the talking during the class trial! It’s way more fun that way!” Everyone will get a kick out of this trial, he thinks. Like Korekiyo, he’s been observing intently the students’ behavior. Unlike Korekiyo, he won’t get himself killed.

Abruptly, the monokuma statue comes to life. It sinks into the water and disappears and the waterfall parts to reveal an elevator door. As a clear invitation to enter, a bridge extends over the water as the doors open. It’s time. As the students descend, they each feel a certain type of dread unique to them. They can’t rid of it as the shaking of the elevator seems to add an extra layer apprehension. 

Gonta can hardly stand it. It feels as though for the second time today he’s failed to save someone. It’ll become three if he isn’t useful during the class trial. He is especially scared of that possibility; He knows he’s an idiot. Still, he has to put his best foot forward. What good will he be, otherwise.

Kirumi’s heart races. Never before has she felt such a fear of failure, even in the face of her toughest past demands. In any case, she has to participate in the class trial, otherwise, she’ll never complete her new request; The Gokuharas will never see their son again. 

They continue their descent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you like the murder mystery I'm making? Or is it too obvious? >_<


	7. Kirumi Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The trial to find Korekiyo's killer begins without a problem, especially for the perpetrator.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

The fifteen students look around. There are sixteen stands for sixteen students, no, fifteen students to occupy. “Welcome to the trial grounds, everybody! Please stand in your specified podiums,” Monokuma demands from his fancy spot on his judge’s seat. His cubs stand side by side with each other in front of him. Every student finds their place, so Monokuma continues, “Are you all comfortable? I don’t actually care. Anyway, this is where the class trials will take place! Impressive, right?” The students are not impressed. In fact, they don’t hesitate to complain. 

“Why is there an image of Korekiyo there?” Kaito points to between Angie and Tsumugi. Where the anthropologist would’ve been, an image of him crossed out with a pink “X” is propped up there instead. 

“Hmm, I guess just to remind you all what’s at stake, here,” Monokuma answers to their ire. “What? If you don’t want that to be you, then don’t die! Simple as that!”

The picture is effective in making Gonta feel an intense remorse. Maybe if he had forced open the door sooner, or… something. He doesn’t know, but when does he ever? Everyone tells him he’s stupid, so what help can he even be to find Korekiyo’s killer? Even after Kirumi was so kind to teach him to be a gentleman, someone reliable, it looks like he won’t be able to achieve it in time, if ever. That squashed caterpillar was in the middle of its metamorphosis. At least it had the ability to change, unlike Gonta, who will be a burden forever. He looks around at everybody. Their faces are steeled in determination. Didn’t they make a promise before about working hard to survive? Yet, despite being determined, they look so unsure. They must have been just as scared as he was when promising to survive, maybe they were just as unsure of their capabilities. He straightens up and stands tall. He’s been selfish, expecting the others to be more competent than him and to pick up his slack. If his friends are pushing back against their doubts, then so can he!

CLASS TRIAL: IN SESSION

“Ahem. Now let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial! During the trial you’ll present your arguments for who you think the culprit is, and vote for ‘whodunnit.’ Vote correctly, and only the blackened will be punished. But if you pick the wrong person… I’ll punish everyone besides the blackened, and that person will graduate from this academy! Also, refusing to vote will result in your death, so be sure to vote for someone! Now, let’s get this doozy of a trial underway!”

Tenko wastes no time to boldly shout, “It’s clearly the little menace, we found his stupid scarf at the crime scene! Show them, Tsumugi!”

“Oh, right.” From her skirt’s pocket, Tsumugi presents the mentioned item.

“That was just lying around at the lab?” Kiibo asks. Everyone turns to Kokichi, donning a similar scarf to the one in question. 

“Whaaat? I don’t know anything about that.” Whether he’s being truthful or not, the evidence is damning.

“Don’t lie to us, menace! You killed the other menace, didn’t you?” Tenko drills. At her continued assaults against him, others follow, and soon it becomes a barrage of accusations. “He’d definitely do it,” and “he would stoop that low,” are common exclamations. The liar doesn’t seem to mind and smiles casually, as if his smile itself is a protective shield.

Shuichi frowns. This isn’t good. Everyone is already grasping onto an early conclusion. He can’t let that stand as a detective. “Everybody… Everybody!,” the students stop their shouting midway to turn to him, “We can’t accuse Kokichi until we go over the entire case properly. It’s highly possible we’re missing some sort of glaring evidence.”

Kaede follows up, “Kokichi is suspicious, but that doesn’t mean he’s the culprit. If I’m being honest, any one of us could be the culprit! It’s hard to think that any one of us could do this to Korekiyo, but… if we’re going to find them, we all need to work together, and that includes Kokichi!” That gets them willing to listen. Kaede smiles and puts the spotlight back on Shuichi.

“I think the first thing we should do is go over how the body was discovered. I believe it was Kaito, Angie, Gonta, and Kirumi who found him. Care to take over?”

“Understood,” Kirumi starts, “In short, Gonta and I were headed towards Korekiyo’s lab because he had requested us to accompany him at around ten o’ clock. When we had gotten to the door, however, it was locked.”

“Wait, I thought that door didn’t lock?” Tsumugi remarks.

Tenko jumps in with her theory, “I know! The culprit could’ve been hidden in the room the whole time. They used something to jam the door shut, then stayed inside the lab while we were there!”

“But all of us were there…” Himiko notes, “I don’t think they could’ve pretended to run in with the rest of us.”

“Oh ho! But the menace did not, in fact, join us. Kokichi could’ve very well stayed hidden until we left to go to the Shrine of Judgement!”

Kokichi sighs dramatically, “Okay, but I was at the shrine before you guys, so no, sorry, that little theory doesn’t hold up.”

“You…!” Tenko grits her teeth. 

“Well, we can confirm one thing,” says Kiibo, “The door was absolutely locked from the outside. There are no other ways to get inside the lab, as far as I know.”

“Why don’t you guys move on with your story?” Shuichi suggests.

“I think that’s when the two of them rushed to Angie and I for help,” Kaito inputs, “Right?”

Gonta responds, “Yes, after Kirumi and Gonta found door locked, they get help. Gonta found Kaito nearby.”

“Yeah, he dragged me to the door panicking about it. I offered to just break open the door, but then Kirumi and Angie came by.”

Angie confirms, “Yup! When Angie investigated the door, she concluded that the door must be broken down as well!”

“That is when Gonta forced the door open,” Kirumi finishes.

“I could’ve done that earlier if they didn’t stop me…” Kaito complains to himself. No one pays him any mind.

“So it’s a locked room mystery…” Shuichi mutters. 

Kaito, who’s next to him, hears and inquires, “What’s a locked room mystery?” His question grabs everyone’s attention.

“It’s a type of mystery where the crime takes place in an area the culprit has no way of getting in or out of. I’m worried if we don’t solve this first, we won’t find the culprit.”

“Hey, do you four have any idea how the door was locked?” Rantaro queries.

“If Angie recalls… nope!”

“Miu and I investigated the door, perhaps she has some insight?” Kirumi suggests.

“Aw, yeah, let me tell you, that door was busted as fuuuuuck!” Miu cackles.

“Anything more helpful than that, Genius?” Kokichi jests.

“Shut up! Anyway, Tarzan had to use so much force that parts of the door splintered off. Like, you could see the splinters stuck onto the doorframe.”

“Stuck on the door frame?” Angie repeats, “How miraculous!”

“It appeared as though some wood from the door stuck onto the doorframe,” Kirumi clarifies, “When I tried to clear them off, however, they would not budge an inch.”

Miu blurts, “I got it! The culprit used magnets!”

“ERRR, Wrong!” Kokichi shouts, “How the hell would the culprit have put magnets in the wall, dumb bitch?”

“H-hey…” Miu whimpers, “I was just… joking…”

“Miu might be onto something, actually,” Kiibo defends, “Though I think it might be a type of adhesive, like glue.”

“There’s glue that strong?” Tenko marvels.

“Absolutely. Gonta,” Kiibo addresses, “Did it feel like the opposing force resisted from your pull, or endured against your push?” 

“...Huh?”

“I don’t think those are things anyone can tell the difference between…” Shuichi deadpans, “Anyway, that’s not necessary to know, I believe that glue is the most plausible answer, considering how old and decrepit the door was in the first place.”

Kaede concludes, “They must’ve gotten it from the warehouse, Shuichi and I found all kinds of things there, I wouldn’t be surprised at super glue.” 

“Gluing a door shut? Sounds familiar…” Monokuma mutters.

“So we have a working theory on how it was locked?” Kaito asks.

“Looks like it,” Shuichi confirms.

“Sweet! I’ve been dying to talk about that noise we heard! I think the spear was knocked over when the door was slammed open, which then in turn knocked the dog statue off the chair!”

“That’s impossible,” Maki states bluntly.

“Wha-how?”

“Don’t you think that statue is too heavy to be knocked over with a rusty spear? Besides, the culprit would have no way of making that work because they’d have to prop it up from the outside.”

“S-sure, but…”

“Hey, Space Idiot, are you implying that the statue was upright in the first place?” Miu questions.

“Yeah? Wait, hey, don’t call me an idiot!”

“Okay, then who the fuck fucked the crime scene?” Miu complains loudly.

Kaede quirks an eyebrow and asks in bewilderment, “What are you talking about?”

“Miu talking about blood on statue!” Gonta informs, “Blood was on bottom, not top or sides.”

“Tarzan’s right! So which of you dumbasses did it?”

“Hey, if no one messed with the scene, maybe the statue was always on its side? If Korekiyo really was pushed off the stairs…” Tsumugi pauses, “the blood could’ve splattered onto the statue. The bottom was facing the body, right? Of course, that theory will go out the door as soon as we find out someone did move some blood around by accident.”

“If that’s the case, then what was that sound?” Kaito questions, “And on top of that, why would the statue be in that position in the first place?”

“Can any of you describe the sound?” Kaede asks.

“Hmm,” Angie mulls, “It was a thump, like something heavy fell. We are not sure. Not even Atua could tell because Gonta made such a ruckus destroying the door.”

“Sorry!”

“Oh! Maybe we could figure out what fell if we know why the culprit covered up the lights!” Tenko exclaims.

Tsumugi takes off, “Oh yeah, Tenko and Himiko and I investigated the upper floors to check if every light was covered by fabric. We learned that the only ones covered were the lights we couldn’t turn off.”

“What would be the point of doing that? The door was already locked, and even then I don’t see why they’d lock the door, either,” Rantaro deliberates, “There’s no need to hide the body… and as soon as someone turned on the lights it’d be found, anyway. I can only imagine that they’d have something else to hide.”

“Perhaps the darkness was not meant to hide, but to reveal!” Angie exclaims, “Atua is telling me there was something important within the darkness.”

Kiibo recalls her earlier testimony, “Are you talking about the lights you saw?”

“Yup! For just a second, small, very tiny orange lights flicked across the room. Angie has very good eyesight, you see!”

“She says that, but...“ Kaito starts, “None of the rest of us saw anything.”

“Gonta did not see, he was too focused on door.”

“I have not seen anything of the sort, either,” Kirumi wraps up.

“Wait a second,” Himiko interrupts, “I know what that is, it’s magic.”

“Ooh, Angie had not considered that!” she cheers.

Kokichi rejects that claim completely, “Magic isn’t real, next!”

Himiko, offended, retorts, “Yes it is, and someone took a magic item from my lab!”

Tenko inhales sharply, remembering the earlier crime, “That’s right! Whoever did it, confess now and I’ll only throttle you a little bit! If you’re a boy, you get a full-on beating either way.”

Rantaro sweats, “That seems a bit unfair, doesn’t it?” 

Kaito, a bit confused, “How do we know Himiko didn’t use it?”

“Shut up, degenerate!”

“Anyway, Himiko, what was taken from your lab?” asks Shuichi.

“It’s enchanted string that disappears on command.”

“Can it be summoned back?”

“No.” That answers that. “It leaves behind ash in its place, though.”

Kaito, incredulously, “Then it just burns up?”

Ryoma comments, “That would explain why there’s ash, but not what the string was used for.”

Kaede tries to recall, “There was ash all over the body, right?”

“There was also a bit of it on the fourth flight of stairs, same place that menace’s scarf was,” Tenko informs.

“So the culprit used string… but doesn’t want us to know they used string?” Tsumugi asks in hope of someone having a better idea than her.

Ryoma can only say, “Smart of them to try and hide their weapon, as odd as it seems.”

“Hey, they could be related to the scorch marks on the door!” Miu shouts. 

Shuichi, surprised at the new information, “Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”

“S-Shut up! You guys moved on before I could finish describing the dumb door! Kirumi didn’t mention it either, so don’t get on my case about it!”

Kirumi, at the mention of her name, “My apologies, it slipped my mind as well.”

Curious, Shuichi asks, “Can you finish describing the door for us?”

Miu, satisfied, continues, “Of course, who do you think I am? I’m the great Miu Iruma, the girl with the golden brain!”

Get on with it,” Maki snaps.

“F-fine. A bit on the side of the door facing outside the room and a part of the wall were burnt. They match up when the door is open, so I thought Gonta caused a friction fire.”

“Gonta promise he did not cause fire! Fire bad!”

Rantaro counters, “A friction fire is highly improbable, but there was definitely some sort of fire. Too bad we don’t know when it appeared,” He turns to Kirumi, “You’ve been in the lab before, do you remember if that was there?”

“...” Kirumi covers her mouth with her hand as she ponders, a habit she does often, “No, the marks were not there before.”

“Gonta know it not there before, too!”

Rantaro raises his arms in a minor realization, “That’s right, you’re with Kirumi most of the time, huh?”

“Well, it looks like those scorch marks are just going to be another unknown for a while,” Kiibo comments.

Irritated, Miu bites, “What? But I just told you guys a piece of evidence none of you pussies knew about!”

Kokichi ridicules. “Whatever, it’s as useless as you, stupid bitch.” She predictably cowers again. 

Ignoring the two, the rest move on. “We did all of this talking, but we not any closer to knowing how Korekiyo died,” Maki gripes.

Kaito tries to start a brainstorm, “Yeah, like, did the culprit wait ‘til he got up all those stairs to chloroform him or what?” 

“Korekiyo looks pretty heavy, so I don’t think the culprit hauled him up all the way there,” Tsumugi thinks aloud, “I definitely couldn’t, at least.”

“The culprit would have to move extremely fast to douse the chloroform onto a rag then wrestle with Korekiyo to knock him out,” Shuichi explains, “Chloroform is highly volatile, so it loses its effectiveness as soon as it’s out of the bottle.”

Kaede concludes, “So that’s why they didn’t just douse a rag it and return it to your lab, right? They still needed the bottle itself.”

“Exactly.”

“So, what does that mean? They waited at the top of the stairs until he was close enough, then did all of that?” Himiko inquires.

Ryoma jumps in, “Korekiyo definitely didn’t walk all the way up there, he would’ve left as soon as he saw the state his lab was in.”

“What do you mean?” Kiibo prompts.

“That’s right, we didn’t discuss the timeline, yet,” he takes the candy out of his mouth to speak easier, “The entire crime took place between nine and ten, so within an hour, but they had to apprehend him immediately. Obviously there’d be no time to not only cover the lights, but to move the dog statue and glue the door, not even mentioning what that string was for.”

Rantaro supports the statement, “Right, the culprit must’ve been out at night to do all of this in secret. Then, all the culprit had to do was kill Korekiyo and lock the door. I think now would be as good a time as any to straighten out the timeline,” he pauses to don a glare, “and our alibis.”

“Well, obviously they had to do most of the preparation at night,” Kiibo starts, “I predict it was getting the glue from the warehouse, the chloroform from Shuichi’s room, perhaps stealing Kokichi’s scarf, then making trips between the lab and the warehouse to cover every light and finally moving the dog statue.”

Shuichi justifies the theory, “The culprit had to act immediately to assault Korekiyo before he reported the state of his room… so they hid the chloroform and scarf somewhere they could get on the way, or had it on their person the entire time.” 

“Oh, that’s nice to know and all, but do any of us really have alibis for last night?” Tsumugi asks worriedly.

Ryoma reassures her, “We won’t need alibis for last night, just this morning. Besides, we already have a strong suspect,” he turns to Rantaro, “care to share what you told me before?”

“I’d hate to reignite the accusations fest, but alright. This morning, I was outside in the courtyard before eight, and I saw Kokichi running from the dining hall to the dorms.” Despite voicing his distaste for restarting a war against Kokichi, a student goes off.

“So it was you!” Tenko loudly accuses. 

As if not being accused of murder, Kokichi merely explains, “I wanted a snack.”

“Yeah, right!”

“Hold on!” Kaede implores, “This doesn’t automatically make him the culprit!”

“If he’s not the culprit, he can tell us the truth!” She aggressively turns towards the compulsive liar, “What were you doing up before the announcement, huh?”

“Preparing to murder Korekiyo, duh~.” Tenko gasps harshly.

“I knew it! That’s why you left the earliest out of all of us!”

At that revelation, Tsumugi joins in, “That’s right, he left breakfast before anybody!”

“And I made such a show of it, too! I guess the guilt was just too much for me, and I was desperate to be caught,” he sheds fake tears and wails, “Monokuma! Just execute me already!”

“Okay, this is getting out of hand,” Shuichi questions him, “Kokichi, just tell us the truth. Why were you up so early, and, I guess, why did you leave first?”

His tears disappear immediately. “Maaaaybe I could tell you…” he teases, “but nah, that would be no fun. Why don’t you just interrogate the other suspects?”

Tenko guffaws, “And who would those be?”

“Well, for starters,” Rantaro states firmly, “There’s Maki, Kaito, Angie, Gonta, and Kirumi.”

“Why do you say that?” Kaede asks.

“They were the only ones on the second floor during the time,” he answers, “I know that’s not much, but I think we should start with them.”

Kaito doesn’t hesitate to share what he knows, “Maki definitely isn’t the culprit, she was by her lab the whole time, I saw her.”

“Were you stalking me again?”

“I’m not doing that!”

“Alright,” Rantaro conveys, “looks like we can rule out Maki, then.”

Kaede goes next, “Gonta couldn’t have done it because he was washing the dishes well past nine.”

Kirumi, hearing of this for the first time, thanks him, “Thank you, Gonta, you’re learning very fast, aren’t you?”

The boy in question blushes, “Is nothing.”

Rantaro continues, “Do the rest of you have alibis?” The silence tells him everything. “Okay, what about the rest of us?”

“I went straight to my lab to do management on Kiibo,” Miu claims.

The robot corroborates, “This is true.”

Tenko pipes up, “Himiko and I were together, right Himiko?”

“...Yeah.”

“Shuichi and I were in his lab, for the most part.”

Shuichi confirms Kaede’s claim, “That’s right.”

Tsumugi then concludes, “And finally, Rantaro and Ryoma and I were still in the dining hall.”

“So that settles it, our suspects are Kokichi, Kaito, Angie, and Kirumi.”

“The Final Four!” Kokichi dramatically announces, “Who will be eliminated? And who will go home with the ultimate prize!”

“Don’t act so happy, you’re a suspect, too!” Kaito yells angrily.

“So, I am suspect? Very well,” Kirumi states simply.

Angie merely laughs.

Ryoma decides to wrap up, “That’s it for the alibis. Now what’s next? There’s a lot we still don’t know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (:
> 
> The trial got too long so I had to cut it up at some point! The next chapter will be super long!
> 
> Anyway, happy solving!


	8. Kirumi Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The students get closer to figuring out how the murder occurred.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early chapter~

“Right, like why did they need magic rope, of all things?” Kaede starts. The students all privately brainstorm until they’re ready to spitball.

“They just wanted to confuse us, maybe?” Tsumugi suggests.

“There would be no attempt to hide it if that were true,” Kirumi says.

Angie offers, “It must have been used on Korekiyo.”

“What, like actual rope?” Himiko asks “I haven’t found a way to use it like that.”

“That’s very possible, remember, it was all over his body, and his clothes were singed all around,” Shuichi informs.

Miu interjects irritatedly, “What about the scorch marks? If the magic shit burned up, then what about the door?”

“You say the spots are really small?” Shuichi asks.

“Yeah, could hardly notice them, but they were pretty distinct. Something had to be used to cause that, can’t be accidental.”

Angie reintroduces Miu’s old theory “Angie saw a fire as soon as the door opened, so maybe Miu was right!”

“Hell, yeah! Wait, about what?”

“The friction!” She answers.

“It could be a part of why the door was glued shut, too,” Ryoma offers.

Kaito sighs, “It’s a part of that weird set up along with everything else we know nothing about,” he suddenly growls, “like that stupid dog statue!”

It’s all connected, he knows it, but Shuchi just can’t figure out how. They’re so close! Maybe they’re overcomplicating it? The culprit wouldn’t go through all of that for nothing… He goes deep into thought. 

LOGIC DRIVE 

Why did the culprit use magic rope? To **hide** the fact they used rope. Why were the non-extinguishable lights covered? To **conceal something temporarily**. What did the dog statue do? Nothing, it was **always on it’s side**. What caused the sound? He can’t answer that, he’s still missing something.

“Um, Gonta not understand why they tie up Korekiyo, culprit had chloroform…” Gonta mutters. At that, something in Shuichi remembers a vital fact.

“The chloroform!” he shouts suddenly, “I completely forgot, but if chloroform is ingested in high amounts, it causes suffocation and death. The Monokuma file specifically stated he died due falling, so why would they wait to kill him? Why would they need to keep him alive?”

The new information chills the room. It’s one thing for someone to kill in an environment like this, it’s another to use someone’s body for another agenda. What would that even be?

“But,” Himiko starts, I didn’t know that, what if the culprit didn’t, either?”

“Or maybe they expected us to not know?” Tsumugi offers.

Shuichi knows this fact is important. Everything was set up too meticulously, there had to be a purpose. Shuichi takes another logic drive. 

LOGIC DRIVE 

Why did the culprit keep Korekiyo alive? To use his body for **another purpose**. Why was magic rope used? To hold Korekiyo. Why was the room dark? To **hide Korekiyo**. Why was the dog statue on its side? To make us think the **sound** came from it falling over. Where did the sound come from? **Korekiyo’s body falling**.

“Oh no…” he mutters softly. 

Kaede, noticing his expression of silent horror, ask urgently, “Shuichi, what is it?”

“I-I think Korekiyo died as soon as you found him.”

“You mean he died right in front of us?” Kaito shouts in shock. 

“Oh, and we didn’t even see it,” Angie says simply.

Kirumi inquires, “What makes you say that?”

“First of all, the dog statue was a distraction meant to make us think that noise you heard came from it falling over, but that’s not the case. It was to conceal the fact that something else fell.” His insinuation almost reaches everyone. “Gonta,” he looks up when addressed, “You mentioned not being able to smell blood until after you opened the door?”

“Y-yes…” he confirms, almost too silently to hear. “So is true?” Gonta asks, hoping in vain it’s not fact. Korekiyo really was killed in front of him, and he could do nothing.

An annoyance disrupts the train of thought, “As shocking a revelation this is, it’s not getting us any closer to the killer,” Kokichi states bluntly, “Now that we’ve made this much progress on the mystery room, why don’t we go back to arguing about what and who is the most suspicious?”

Tsumugi sweats, “Should we really be doing that now?”

“Why not?” Kokichi offers, “Besides, I have a very interesting fact to share with you all.”

Tenko grits her teeth, “Well? What is it, menace?”

Kokichi’s aura changes. The students almost can’t tell he’s the same person as the one standing there seconds before. He says with an ominous smile, “Did you guys remember, that in order for the body discovery announcement to play, three people, not including the killer, have to find the body? So~ the culprit needed at least three other people for a little trick to work.”

K1-B0 can barely utter out, “W-what trick?” 

“He’s saying the culprit was among the people who found the body,” Shuichi finishes for him. 

Kaede, despite advocating so hard for finding the truth, hesitates, but manages to say, “So the culprit is either Kaito, Angie, or Kirumi.”

“Maybe~.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Kaito shouts, “You just implied that was the case!”

“That I did,” the liar answers unhelpfully. 

“If I may be so rude, I believe you should quit throwing silly theories around. For all we know, you just took advantage of these facts to construct a theory that distances you from suspicion,” Kirumi curtly states.

“Oh~ I am? What makes you say that? What’s your proof?”

She explains, “I am simply doing my best to help us find the truth. Besides, I certainly had not forgotten the sight of your scarf at the scene.”

“Alright, I’m tired of spelling things out for you guys. You do the rest.”

Both Kaito and Tenko explode with ire. “Hey! You can’t just keep hiding crap from us!”

“Hurry up and tell us what you know, degenerate!”

Kokichi is implying something. He wants someone to be suspected. Who? Who was suspicious this entire time? Shuichi thinks.

SELECT SOMEONE: Kaito, Angie, Kokichi, Kirumi.

“D-did Kirumi set this all up?” Shuichi asks. At that statement, Kirumi’s stand moves forward and puts her under everyone’s scrutiny. Some look with nausea, some look with surprise, one looks in pure terror.

“Master Kirumi kill Korekiyo?” He could hardly even get the statement through his lips because his voice is shaking so much. He has an easier time voicing his denial, “No, Kirumi can’t kill Korekiyo. Kirumi not culprit!”

“Gonta, there is no need to worry,” she reassures him, almost too calm under the critical eyes of her peers, “if I am under suspicious, then I will have to work hard to defend myself. Remember, I am fighting to protect you. Now, Shuichi, tell us why I am under suspicion.” 

Kirumi seems different. Maybe it’s just the circumstances, but she seems, a bit too prepared, or, better yet, expectant of this outcome. Regardless, they both have to argue to the best of their ability. 

“Considering you usual behavior and your skills, there is a lot to find suspicious. When you and Gonta arrived at the door, you’re response to the problem was extremely odd. For example, I would think an ultimate maid could solve a problem like that on their own.”

“I find nothing suspicious with that,” Kirumi counters, “the glue was not visible when the door was closed. It was not until after Gonta tore the door open did we discover it.”

“It’s not only that, you seemed to insinuate to Gonta that something was extremely wrong and made him panic.”

“Of course I would be concerned that something was amiss. However, it was certainly not my intention to cause Gonta distress, he is simply a very kind soul.”

“Why did you stop Kaito from forcing the door open, but demanded Gonta to do it as soon as Angie said it was an option? That sounds like an odd flip of opinion, especially for a maid who cares about cleanliness.”

“Well, Kaito could have opened it, I merely wanted a second opinion beforehand.”

“Okay, then why did you command Gonta specifically, unless you knew how much strength would be needed to fight against the glue?”

“Are you implying Gonta was my accomplice? If so, I have no knowledge of Gonta’s involvement whatsoever.”

“Kirumi… Why did you emphasize Gonta’s innocence over your own?” At that, Kirumi stiffens. It seems this time she is struggling to find a way to counter him. Shuichi hopes she does, because if this case is what he thinks it is…

“I thought that was an appropriate response to that type of question. If not, I will simply say I had nothing sinister planned with him.”

“Okay. I have one final question for you. Is it true that Korekiyo requested you to accompany him in his lab?”

“Yes, he requested Gonta and I to accompany him again this morning before breakfast.”

The answers add up too well, but Shuichi can’t reveal his hand yet. He has another person to interrogate, after all. “Thank you, Kirumi, that’s all the questions I have. Gonta? Do you mind answering some questions, too?”

As Kirumi’s podium moves back, Gonta’s moves forward. He’s surprised at the development, but steels himself. “Gonta can try!” Inspired by Kirumi’s words, he readily answers the questions to the best of his ability. His determination is a sharp contrast to Shuichi’s hesitation.

“Gonta…” Shuichi addresses him solemnly, “You’ve spent a lot of time with Kirumi, correct?”

“Is true.”

“Was there anything odd with the routine the two of you followed, today?”

“Um, not that Gonta know.”

“Was Kirumi suspicious at all to you?”

“Master Kirumi looked sad, yesterday, she also sad today, before they find… Korekiyo.”

“Alright, one more question. Did you know that Korekiyo requested you two to accompany him that day?”

“Not until Kirumi tell me right before we go to lab.”

“I see…” That concludes it. “I think Kirumi may have set up the murder.”

The first to protest expectedly comes from Gonta, “No! Can’t be right! Kirumi can’t be culprit!” Despite his earlier determination, the desperation crawls from his mouth to everyone’s ears. He can’t even gather himself enough to call her by her unofficial title. 

“Gonta…” Kirumi tries to reach out to him, but he continues to cry.

“No! Why Kirumi culprit? Why Shuichi doubt Kirumi?” The dismay emanating from him infects everybody and they start to doubt if they can incriminate a friend. Nonetheless, they know their lives are on the line, so they press on.

“Shuichi, explain everything you figured out right now,” Maki demands.

“The culprit wanted to set up a scene where it appeared as if Korekiyo died earlier, when in actuality he died right when he was discovered. Except, why would they do that?” As he pauses, a few others’ faces scrunch up in further confusion. “The reason they had to keep Korekiyo alive, was because they needed someone else to do something. They…” He chokes up a bit, he almost can’t say it. When he does, it’s quiet, but feels to everyone in the room as though he screamed it, “They needed someone else to kill Korekiyo.” 

“W-w-whaaaaaaaaat?” Tenko screeches.

“T-that,” K1-B0 starts, “that doesn’t make any sense! They wouldn’t get anything out of that!”

“And if what you’re saying is true, then,” Kaito questions, words oozing with shock and apprehension, “Then one of the four of us who found the body killed him? Who?”

SELECT SOME-

“IT WAS ME!” The room stills. Everyone whips their heads to the one who spoke, and its-

“Kirumi?” Gonta’s voice cracks. His biggest fear is realized. “No… Kirumi not…”

“I set up everything and I murdered Korekiyo!” her voice shrieks. It unnerves everyone, they had never heard her so… panic stricken. “Vote for me!” This is impossible. Kirumi is supposed to do her job correctly, precisely, efficiently. Screaming her guilt is everything but that! 

“I, what?” Shuichi says dumbly.

“So, you killed Korekiyo?” Tenko is sweating. “But, why would you do all of that just to kill him?”

“Does it matter?” The oddity of the question turns everyone’s heads towards Angie. “She has confessed herself, so there is no need to look further. It is time for Atua to judge her.”

“Whoa, wait!” Kaito yells, “We can’t just say it’s her, what if she’s lying?”

“If she is, then you know that means you could be the blackened, right?” Rantaro asks coldly. It sends a shiver down his spine.

“Gonta can’t believe it Kirumi!” he shouts. He starts sounding like a child, and it hurts to hear him cry all the more.

“Yes she is, moron!” Miu jeers, “The french maid already admitted it, let’s get this over already!”

“I don’t see any other way it could be…” Tsumugi worries.

Shuichi counters, “That’s why we have to keep discussing it!” 

Maki moans, “So we’re split on this, half and half.”

“This is no good,” Rantaro comments, “We really can’t decide?”

“Whaaaaaat’s that, I hear?” Monokuma cheers, “Do we have an argument afoot?”

“Hooray! Daddy looks so excited!” Monofunny delights.

Monosuke chuckles, “This will know the pants off all you’se!”

“It’s time to present this academy’s very own Morphenomenal Trial Grounds!” Without explaining, he dramatically garnishes a key and inserts it into the mechanism. The podiums glow, and they start to rise. They organize themselves into two teams. Obvious about its intent, the students prepare to debate. 

SCRUM DEBATE

Kirumi Killed Korekiyo!

Kirumi Might Not Have Killed Korekiyo!

Kirumi, Angie, Miu, Ryoma, K1-B0, Himiko, Tsumugi, Maki

Gonta, Shuichi, Kaede, Kaito, Rantaro, Kokichi, Tenko

Tsumugi: Kirumi must have just orchestrated it to confuse us!

Rantaro: She’s doing one hell of a good job of **confusing** you, then.

Angie: It is over for Kirumi, she has made her confession! 

Kaito: It could be a false **confession**!

K1-B0: There is no possible reason to not make themselves the blackened!

Kaede: It’s not the type of **reason** we could ever hope to understand.

Ryoma: Maybe the guilt was too much for her, she wants to help us now.

Kokichi: She certainly wants to **help** someone, doesn’t mean it’s us.

Miu: Will you dumbasses get over you attachment to her? She’s the culprit!

Tenko: I think it’s because of an **attachment** that Kirumi’s lying.

Maki: Everything is already tied together, what’s the point of going further?

Shuichi: Not **everything’s** solved! There’s one more element we’re missing!

Kirumi: Gonta, if you don’t vote for me, you’ll die!

Gonta: Gonta rather **die** than kill Kirumi!

The room pauses.

The last two statements dispels the hostility and replaces it with pity. These two seem to be at the center of it all: The stares, the accusations, the desperation. The students wonder if they can even wiggle between them to solve the murder until the two of them come to a understanding an agreement. Unfortunately, the situation they’re in forces a dichotomy: Kill or be killed. How could they ever let the other die? 

“Gonta-”

“NO!”

“Gonta please…!” She calls hysterically.

Gonta has none of it. “Kirumi not die! Gonta rather die for Kirumi! Kirumi important! She’s kind to Gonta! Kind to everyone!”

Kirumi can’t manage all of the emotions she feels at once. “Gonta! I gave you an order to put yourself before anybody else, that includes me!” Her tears fall as hard as Gonta’s. She feels as desperate as Gonta to keep the other alive. This… impasse. She can’t cross it. She can’t cross to reach Gonta on the other side, tell him it’s okay, then take the leap for him. “D-do as I say!”

Gonta doesn’t even utter a word, he just sobs over the abyss and teeters towards the edge. 

The students can’t take it anymore. They have to end this. 

Shuichi bids their attention, “Gonta. Kirumi.” They uselessly wipe their tears to look to him. They can’t see his eyes, but they can sense his dismay. “We’re going to finish connecting the pieces, after that, you two do what you need to do.” Neither has the strength to object, too drained from their fight with each other. He starts once again. “The culprit, no, the orchestrator, wanted to create a scene where four people, including the orchestrator and unintentional murderer, would discover the body by triggering its death. They set it up so that they’d believe the body died much earlier, so suspicion would be placed away from the murderer, but not quite themselves. This was intentional. They want to be suspected so the murderer can get away and graduate.”

“Stop!” Kirumi shouts. Shuichi expects this. “Tell us right now, how could they have forced someone else to kill? What could’ve possibly happened?”

“Kirumi-”

“Tell us! I made the body fall, not anybody else! NOT GONTA!”

ARGUMENT ARMAMENT

“What would I gain from making someone else the killer?”

“I killed him! Not Gonta!”

“It’s impossible to orchestrate someone else to kill.”

“They’d have to do exactly what you want!”

“Tell us!”

“What could I have possibly done to make Gonta kill?”

COMMANDED - HIM TO - OPEN - THE DOOR

Kirumi is frozen. She’s lost control of everything, her ragged breathing, her composure, her wide eyes, all betraying her weakness.

This confirms it. The weight of the realization finally crushes Gonta. Oh god. He can’t hold his own weight with just his feet anymore. He clutches the stand and looks down at his useless feet.

Neither the master or apprentice is in control. They are both the victim not of each other, but of their roles.

The others are only slightly better off. Save a few, they all sport unique expressions of anguish. Shuichi musters barely enough composure to pin the final piece in place. “The scorch marks on the door and wall, they were caused by Gonta, weren’t they?” Everyone remains silent. They can do nothing to fight the truth now. “There was possibly a match head and coarse strip glued to them that burned up and disappeared. The purpose of that fire was… to set fire to the rope holding Korekiyo. That’s how Gonta is the killer.”

While everyone stays silent. Kirumi still grips onto an iota of hope or desperation, either one to protect Gonta. She wheezes out what little she can say. Shuichi shouts his eyes. It’s time to end this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone who's played Ghost Trick will know where I got that rope idea from.
> 
> I lied, this chapter is not significantly longer because I found another good spot to split it.
> 
> Also, the scrum debate’s not really a scrum debate this time, kinda shoehorned in, really -_-


	9. Kirumi Part 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The killer is discovered, and it tears the student body apart. Kirumi takes Gonta's lesson to heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last part of this wild ride...

CLOSING ARGUMENT

ACT 1  
The night before the murder, the Orchestrator began the arrangement of a complicated murder, one they would not reap the rewards from. Throughout the night, they collected super glue, chloroform, magic string, and one of Kokichi’s scarves. I Korekiyo’s research lab, they weave the majority of the rope contraption with the magic string and hauled the dog statue to the floor and on its side, surrounding it with props. Finally, they make multiple trips between the warehouse and the lab to cover the unextinguishable lights in with sheets. These were all essential for next morning’s planned scenario. They kept the chloroform, glue, and scarf in their possession then returned to their dorm room.

ACT 2  
The next morning, right after breakfast, Korekiyo leaves for his lab. The Orchestrator immediately took this cue to make the Killer stay out of the way as they carried out their plan, but reunite with them after they finished. The orchestrator had a very small window of time to apprehend Korekiyo before he saw his room and reported its state, so in the way they doused the scarf with chloroform. Just after Korekiyo saw his lab, the Orchestrator wrestled the scarf over his mouth and knocked him out.

ACT 3  
After knocking it Korekiyo, the Orchestrator hauled his body up four flights of stairs to the string contraption. They suspended his body over the side of the stairs for him to fall from later. They dropped the scarf on the same flight of stairs in order to gram Kokichi and slightly falsify the method of apprehension. Next they glued the parts of the matchbox onto the door and wall and connected it to the string contraption. When they leave, they used the glue once again to make the door impossible to open, creating the illusion of a locked-room murder, but used for a different purpose. 

ACT 4  
Once they are finished, they go to meet the Killer, just as they specified to them. They made up a lie about Korekiyo needing them, so they set off to his lab together. When they encounter the locked door, the Orchestrator riles up the Killer into thinking there is something wrong, and to get help. The two summoned Kaito and Angie, who both happened to be nearby. The Orchestrator purposefully gathered two more witnesses for a specific purpose, the commanded the Killer to force open the door, triggering the deadly machine. 

ACT 5  
As soon as the Killer ripped the door open, the match lights up, burning up the string contraption suspending Korekiyo. He died upon impact. However, no one at the door realized this happened because the lights were covered. The Orchestrator turns on the remaining lights to reveal his corpse to the four, and the body discovery announcement plus, fulfilling the requirements of three witnesses, even with the Killer among them. We were completely unaware of this sinister plan because the contraption disappeared as soon as it’s job was done, and dog statue did its task of concealing the true origin of the sound of Korekiyo’s body falling. The crime was complete, and the Killer didn’t even know their role. Isn’t that right, Kirumi Tojo, the Ultimate Maid, and Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist?

Pain is the only word they can find to describe their feelings. Any other word is too specific for the conglomerate of awful emotions they’re forced to experience at once. Monokuma revels in their pain. “Well~! Looks like it’s Voting Time!”

“Oh boy, that sure was a long trial! I already forgot half of it!” Monotaro cheers.

Monofunny mutters, “That’s not good…” 

“W-Wait!” Kirumi cries.

Monokuma brandishes his claws and growls, “Save your complaints for after voting time!”

VOTE

The monitor falls. The students count the marks on each suspect. 

Kirumi: 1

Gonta: 14

The light from the wheel lands on Gonta’s sprite. The casino machine flashes and pings in celebration. Nothing is won. “Congratulations! You got it right! The murderer of Korekiyo Shinguji, the Ultimate Anthropologist, was one-hundred percent Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist!”

“NOOOO!” the Ultimate Maid screams. She’s failed. Gonta will die because of her. “Gonta!” She turns aggressively to the other students, spinning in place as she yells at all of them, “You ruined everything!”

Gonta can’t stand to see her so anguished, “Kirumi! Is okay! Kirumi!”

“It’s not okay! I…!” She chokes up. For a moment, everyone remains silent.

“Nishishishi!” Through tearful eyes some look to him with disdain. “Well~ I think now’s a good a time as any to ask these two what the hell is going on,” he states simply, as if another friend was not condemned to death. 

Kaito growls, Hey, man, can’t you read the mood?”

“What? I thought everyone wanted to know why Korekiyo had to die.” It’s silent again. Kokichi gets exactly what he wants. “So while you chumps were investigating the crime scene and stupidly working together like ‘friends’, I took it upon myself to find some different kind of evidence!” Then, from his many hidden pockets, he removes the cause of their current anguish. “Tadah! The motive videos!” In his hands he holds at least eight monopads between his fingers, and possibly has even more in his pockets. 

Shocked and angry, Kaede demands, “How did you get those?”

“Learning how to lockpick opens up a lot of doors for you, you know,” He blandly jokes. 

“Wait, so,” Tsumugi starts, “Korekiyo was the target?”

Kokichi chuckles dryly, as if unbelieving of her stupidity. “No, which is why I was so confused to find out it was Korekiyo who was murdered. I watched my motive video well before today, you see.” He sees Kaede get angrier, and simply comments, “I told you all that if we got close, Monokuma would just work harder to tear us apart, so I followed my own advice. Anyway~ when I finally watched a certain video, it became obvious who the killer was before I even knew who died!” Kirumi freezes. Is he-? “Why don’t I just show you what I’m talking about, huh?” Without protest, he plays Kirumi’s motive video.

The maid can’t stand to watch her failure again, but she can’t block off it’s noise no matter how hard she presses her hands against her ears. Damn it! Can’t she wallow in her shame on her own? She doesn’t need them to see.

Gonta stares as if hypnotized. This, this is what he forgot? “-separated from his family for ten years. His family mourned, ‘Oh where, oh where could our son be?’ Desperate to find-” Yes, this is true. “-what is this? He just keeps falling back into trouble! His table manners are awful, he won’t stay in his clothes, and is an overall embarrassment-” What? That’s what his family truly thought of him? He thought he was just being dramatic. “-hire you to not only mold him into the perfect son, but to protect him from anymore trouble-” Protect Gonta? That’s… “-look at this, Gonta is now trapped in here with you-” ridiculous, he doesn’t deserve that. Kirumi doesn’t deserve this. Korekiyo didn’t deserve this. “-What will you do now?” He’s finally left staring at a blank screen. 

The room is dead. No sounds leaves their mouths because they hesitate to let go of their breaths. 

“...Do you all see now?” Kirumi slowly straightens her posture, so slowly she looks zombie-like. “I had a duty. Gonta was to be saved... He was to be everything his family wanted.“

“Ki-Kirumi…” Gonta sobs, “Why Kirumi work so hard…? Gonta was oka-”

“The Gokuhara family needed their son!”

Gonta’s family not matter!” He shouts. He has never yelled in this volume before, and suddenly everyone is reminded of his true strength, not just in his body but in his heart. “Nothing ever more important than Kirumi’s happiness… more than Kirumi’s life!” Kirumi doesn’t respond. “Kirumi more important than anything!” He nearly bangs his fist on the podium. “Promise Gonta, Kirumi think of Kirumi first, not him, not anyone!”

“Gonta! Don’t say that!” She screams, “I really do care about you! The time we spent before we were kidnapped and the time we spent together here… they weren’t just a job!!”

The other students can’t help but comment and question this tragedy. Kaede quietly asks, “Kirumi, you were so willing to die for a request… I thought you didn’t go that far… you said that me yourself! Why?”

“I don’t know.” 

“You don’t?” Kiibo asks.

“...”

“Was this about pride? Guilt? Kirumi, we want to understand,” Shuichi begs.

Kaito grumbles, “Man, this all so stupid. Why don’t you understand? There’s nothing more important than yourself.”

“Exactly what Kaito say!” Gonta cries.

“Guess things are hard to let go, even if they hurt you,” Ryoma says sagely, “Shame Kirumi’s pride consumed her.”

“My work was everything to me,” she mutters. In realization, she cries, “It all means nothing, here!”

“No, that’s wrong!” Gonta shouts, “This place never define Kirumi, requests never define Kirumi, Kirumi’s heart define Kirumi! And Gonta know Kirumi’s heart is kind. Please, like Gonta promise Kirumi, she promise him too, think of herself.”

“...I-“

“Okay, we’re bored. We get it, it’s about the importance of self, yada yada yada. It’s time for the exciting part!”

“Kirumi’s fear spikes, “No! Wait! Gonta, don’t go!”

“I’ve prepared a very special punishment for the Ultimate Entomologist, Gonta Gokuhara!”

“Is okay, Gonta not scared. But please promise!“

“I can’t-”

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s…”

“Think of promise like… Gonta’s final request. And… Gonta, loves you all.”

“PUNISHMENT TIME!”

“Gonta! I promise! GONTA!!!”

The chain appears from nowhere and clamps around his neck. He keeps his eyes on Kirumi and extends his arm as it pulls him away from the trial ground. Through his fingers, Kirumi’ tears and her desperate attempt to reach him and save him are the last of her he sees.

Gonta Gokuhara the Ultimate Entomologist in:

The Virgin Queen Massacre

Execution: Executed

It’s dark. His prison is so small and oddly shaped that he has to curl up in a ball to fit. He puts his hands to wall and feels the strangest texture. He pushes. Nothing. He pushes some more. A budge. Suddenly, it breaks open. He sees yellow as he stumbles to his knees from his prison that lays five feet from the floor. Slightly sitting up to a kneeling position, he looks to his surroundings. All around him is an obnoxious honey yellow. 

The room has six sides. The walls reach up to infinity and hold rows upon rows of hexagonal pods. It’s a hive. A very fake hive, but the idea translates. In front of him is an extravagant throne. He can guess what it represents.

The Queen Bee’s buzzing wings can be heard well before she can even be seen as she descends from the heavens to her throne. She looks metallic, robotic. She’s bigger than Gonta. It seems the only thing accurate about her appearance is the significantly long abdomen, the main identifier for a queen bee. As she sits, she flourishes a golden staff and points it towards him. He takes it as a cue to stand. He wonders what a queen bee would do to him. She has a stinger, no barbs, so she can stab him multiple times if she wants to. She raises her staff. Immediately, container after container emerges from the pods to reveal… queen cups. Did he emerge from one? He looks back to see his pod is the same as the rest.

One by one, virgin queen bees burst from their cups and aggressively brandish their stingers. It’s terrifying. Normally, bugs are small and friendly to Gonta. These are large, aggressive, unnatural. Then, in a gory display of scraping metal and smashing gears, the massacre begins. The virgin queens, driven by self interest, maul each other to ensure the place of future queen. Is he a part of this? A buzzing behind him confirms his answer as he jumps to the side and watches as a stinger nearly misses him. More surround him. 

What does he do? What have previous bees in his position done? He thinks to the melipona scutellaris. Virgin queens were known to escape the hive to seek another without a queen. He looks up. Despite his 20/0.625 vision, he can’t see the top, the walls merely fade to a mysterious white.The queens fly closer. He has no choice. He takes a running start maneuvering past the warring queens to the wall and clings to the edges of the pods. With the speed and strength of one who’s lived in the mountains most of his life, he jumps up to the next pod and begins his ascent.

The bees fly up alongside him, still fighting each other and targeting him. He barely dodges a stinger by his hand. Higher and higher he goes, listening to the jarring sounds of metal stabbing metal. The buzzing becomes unbearable and he is half-tempted to stop climbing and cover his ears. 

A stinger slices the back of his shirt. He pays it no mind, even as more stingers tear apart his clothes and slice his skin. The buzzing gets louder and the stabs more frequent. He can’t hold in a scream as one particularly nasty assault tears through his calf. He tries to curl up and protect himself as much as he can and climb at the same time, but it’s exhausting. He chooses to climb no matter what, a little pain is worth a life. Except, it’s no longer a little pain. The stings become more precise and stab his spine, legs, hands. At one point the strap of his terrarium is cut and it falls. He can’t hear the impact. His grip listens due to fatigue and the copious amounts of blood running down his body. His glasses get knocked off, now he can hardly see the pods he’s clutching at. 

By the time the buzzing and metal sounds die down, his limbs are heavy and sharp pains course through his whole body. He doesn’t even have the strength to lift his head. His vision is so fuzzy without his glasses to correct his farsightedness. The pods and his legs are just lumps of fuzz. A flicker of black flits across his sight. A shadow. He look upwards and sees… a butterfly. He can’t make out it’s features, but it’s large. It’s fuzzy, so it must be close to his eyes, right? Hope surges through him and he reaches up to greet it and feels-

A flat ceiling. A pinching motion with his fingers reveals the butterfly to be a scrap of paper. His hope vanishes. As if hope was the only thing keeping him up, his grip fails, and he falls backwards. As he plummets, his vision of the paper grows clearer. It’s black and orange, white polka dots. That’s all he processes until he’s too far away again to see it. He should be close to the ground now. Any second and… On the ground lays piles upon piles of the sharp metal remains of the massacre. The scraps pierce his back, limbs, everywhere. It hurts. He sees his own blood burst. His throat filled with blood forces it out in a painful coughing fit. It feels as though tiny bees continue to assault him from within. He’s still barely alive.

He hears more buzzing. His heart speeds up to pump what little blood he has left on the off chance he can survive the next attack. The Queen Bee looks down upon him. It’s degrading. While her regal refinement turns her nose up at him, he looks like the lowest of the low. His clothes are so torn only a few strips of fabric hold them. Blood mats his hair and he’s pretty sure his new haircut from the stings is far from flattering. Sweat accompanies the blood and soaks the scraps of fabric and dignity he has left. The Queen moves again. He has to squint his eyes to see but it appears she is holding a teacup. A prize? Did he unintentionally win the title the virgin queens fought so brutally for? He can’t help but think of his family and his goal to become a gentleman. His family expected him to be the perfect son for the perfect family, yet he needed them and Kirumi to grind hours of their time on them. He feels like a parasite. He’s leeching off the sacrifices of the other bees beneath him, he doesn’t deserve what the Queen is bestowing him.

She lowers the cup to him, except she holds it far enough away treat he can’t even reach out to it. He struggles to move, to sit up just a little bit to see inside the cup. He forgets his previous thoughts, he wants the prize. It’s the least he can do, right? After so many people put time and effort in him. He rolls over to try and kneel and attempts to reach for the cup again. He feels as though he’s sunken lower, kneeling and begging to get what the Queen keeps pulling out of his reach. Finally, his fingers graze the cup, then the Queen

Brandishes her staff

And stabs him straight through the chest. 

He knows no more. 

The Queen leaves his corpse lying on top of discarded parts, like a body dumped in a trash heap. The one born of noble blood, forced to fight like a wild animal for his life then looked down upon by royalty. If he were still alive he’d comment on the honey bee social hierarchy where only the best queen lives. It’s brutal, even for him. 

From above, the light paper butterfly catches up to him. It’s a monarch butterfly that delicately lands by his head as if it belongs there, as if he belongs with the gentle insect. 

His execution is over.

From their podiums the students stare at the horror. Their friend, someone who no matter what only wanted to protect them, is gone. He was so innocent, and yet he never even thought that he might be the one who needed protecting. Their hearts rip open. However, no one holds more despair than Kirumi, the one who did want to provide him protection, something he probably never had before. 

Kirumi is a shell of her former self, an empty husk with nothing inside to support her, instead curled up in a heap on the floor. No one knows how to approach her. Should they help her up? Pat her back? 

“Hoo-wee! That punishment sure was a doozy! I had put a lot of extra effort into making this one!” Monokuma cheers, rubbing salt into their wounds. He gets no reaction from Kirumi, but the others don’t hesitate to aggrieve.

“What the hell was that?” Tenko shouts, voice cracking, “That was so brutal!”

Monokuma wisecracks, “I haven’t heard any of you complaining about Korekiyo’s gory demise so I thought this was fine.”

“Tch, you…” Kirumi growls.

“Ooh~ so scary! Except, what are you gonna do about it now that he’s already dead?” He laughs obnoxiously, “You did what you did, it’s got nothing to do with me!”

“It has everything to do with you!” Kaito guffaws. 

“Hmph,” as if talking to toddlers, he explains, “I like to believe that how one responds to a situation defines them, so even though I put you here, what you do is your own decision, and how you react is reflective of who you are. I hope you all remember that. Buh-bye!”

His cubs follow, “So long, bear-well!”

The students are free to leave, but the feeling of imprisonment lingers. They have enough sense to leave their podiums and try and comfort each other, though not enough to leave. The death of their friend tethers them there, as if his ghost is grasping at them, not wanting to be left alone. Gradually the force grows weaker and weaker until finally the students can drag themselves to the elevator. Now that the influence of the dead has dispersed, the living have to deal with each other. There is a defined gap between Kirumi and the rest. When the students leave, she is the last left behind.

—

It takes all of her strength to change into non-wrinkled clothes and she doesn’t have enough to tend to her hair at all, lacking its signature headband. The morning is bright. Kirumi feels the days have no right to be happy when she has to suffer, internally and without a shoulder to cry. It’s always been like that, hasn’t it? She was always alone, no support. She had hoped this meant she developed thick skin, but that is clearly not the case. Perhaps she can still scavenge some strength from somewhere, like a memory, or some sort of memento. She finds none, so drags her feet to the courtyard close by, not wanting to tend to breakfast. No one would want food from her anymore, anyway. They’ll think she poisoned it, or left shards of glass within them. 

This is what she deserves.

She doesn’t get to visit Gonta’s dorm room, she’s discovered it’s been locked since the trial. She can’t enjoy any company, everyone is scared of her. She’ll never get praise for her work again, no one trusts her to take care of them. She slumps down onto a stool and buries her head in her arms on the table. Maybe she can let herself just rot here.

This is hell. Gonta would probably tell her to take care of herself. She’ll never know, though, nothing is left of him.

Something light touches her shoulder. She jerks her head up to see who would approach after what she’s done, and sees no one. Who…?

Orange and black with white polka dots. That’s what’s fluttering in front of her face. It’s not alone, around ten more surround her, landing on the table or her clothes. These are the caterpillars Gonta had released. What are they doing around her? From the trees at the edge of the academy, more flutter to her. Gonta was capable of communicating with them, did he, did he tell them about her? She looks back on the time Gonta had asked her if she liked monarch butterflies. She told him some bullshit answer, that she’d have the same opinion of them as everyone else. She wishes now that she could tell him the truth. She didn’t really feel fond of them before, but now she almost… cherishes them as a memento of Gonta. She doesn’t notice she’s crying until she feels her tears hit her arms. The ghost of Gonta is communicating with her through the monarchs. Why else would they crowd around her? She lets herself sob, wail, everything Gonta would have done freely when faced with anguish. 

From the dorms, research labs, dining hall, monarch butterflies flutter to every student. They flap their delicate wings in front of their faces, distracting them from their current activity until they realize the significance of the living beings beside them within the academy. When the butterflies fly away from them to the outdoors, they follow, fully driven by curiosity. One by one they’re all lead to the courtyard. 

Tenko is the first to arrive and see Kirumi all alone with only the company of the butterflies, wallowing in sorrow. She can relate on some level to wanting to put everything on the line for one person. She walks to the courtyard and sits in a seat next to Kirumi. 

Ryoma has no lack of regret in his life. That must be why when he sees Kirumi in the courtyard he can’t help but feel a bit of sympathy. He takes a seat by Kirumi.

Shuichi is full of remorse. He hated having to uncover the truth of a friend’s death and condemn another. He hates that someone innocent had to die while the orchestrator goes scot-free just because of Monokuma’s stupid rules. When the butterfly leads him to the courtyard, he observes the trio at the table. Although he can barely catch the glimpses of her eyes, he can tell they’re full of agony, just like yesterday. He takes a seat.

Kiibo cannot completely comprehend any of the motivations or reasoning behind his friends’ actions, but when does he ever? Seeing some of the others hanging out with Kirumi must be another normal thing. He walks over.

Kaede isn’t sure if she can forgive Kirumi. She killed Korekiyo and planned to kill them all during the trial. She doesn’t think the motive video should have been any reason to do what she did. Kaede had worked so hard to make sure everyone survived happy, but now two of them are gone and they have someone to blame. Although… four of her other friends are sitting by her, giving her some support even though they also have a lot of burden to carry. She sits at the table.

Kokichi sees everybody crowd around the murderer like flies to a garbage bin. Ridiculous, didn't they learn anything? How can they expect to survive on trust? Look where that got them. Whatever, if everyone walks straight to their deaths because of their stupidity then so be it. He'll do his own thing. The thing is currently joining the students at the courtyard. What harm would it do to look? That's what he tells himself. 

Eventually, every student, including Kokichi, is drawn to the courtyard by Gonta’s legacy. Even in death, he gives his help when he can and communicates his desire for them to get along. As they relax together, they wonder if Gonta is giving the same comforting hand to Korekiyo.

Kirumi’s awful sin will haunt her forever. She isn’t sure how well she can gather herself back together, but if the monarchs, Gonta, have anything to say about it, she thinks she’ll do just fine. She can interpret the monarchs as signs of forgiveness, and as signs of a metamorphosis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Virgin queens are this honey bee thing... bees are kinda hardcore, man.
> 
> I want to thank the people who commented on this work. It means a lot! <3
> 
> The next person’s series may take a bit, so please be patient! <3


	10. Shuichi Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi works with Gonta to attempt to hide dangerous items. With Kaede, he investigates a lead with the motive videos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray! I got it done.

Shuichi does not consider himself a detective. Friendly people like Kaede and Kaito don’t hesitate to praise him, yet he can’t bring himself to be proud of it. His memory of his first case acts like a wall between the reality of his skill and his consciousness of it. If he solved a different case instead, he would definitely be happier. He’d like the truth to be that the criminal was an irredeemably awful person, and not an unfortunate soul who was swept up in a current of crime and the legal system. He fears what truths this, prison he is stuck in with fifteen others will force him to reveal. Of course he desires the truth, but why does it have to be so painful? If a murder does occur in this hell, would he really want to bother solving it? Would he really rather die? He mentally scolds himself. Kaede doesn’t want him thinking like that, neither would the majority of his new friends here, either. Actually, speaking of those concerned for his wellbeing, a certain student sits across from him in the library, badly covering up his intent to monitor the detective’s wellbeing with an act of reading a book on arachnids.

“Um, Gonta, can I help you?” When addressed, Gonta stiffens slightly. Does he really think he’s not obvious?

“No, is okay,” he says simply.

“I know something’s on your mind. It’s alright to ask if there’s something bothering you.”

Gonta puts down his book and pouts. “Is nothing…”

Shuichi sighs, “You don’t have to lie to me, I know you’re curious about something.”

Gonta seems to be preparing himself to talk. He opens his mouth then shuts it as quickly. His eyes don’t focus on any one place, flitting around as of looking for an answer. Finally, he settles to look Shuichi in the eyes. The detective feels a bit put on the spot, despite being the one who prodded Gonta. Is this something serious?

“Gonta see Shuichi is not happy.” Oh, so he is concerned about that. Figures, Shuichi hasn’t exactly been the peppiest ever since the motives were handed out this morning. He didn’t know he was obvious enough for Gonta to notice. He smiles a bit inside, shame on him for criticizing Gonta’s lack of stealth.

“What makes you think that?”

“Shuichi not as talkative. Gonta think is because Shuichi worried about motive videos.” Spot on. “Gonta want to help Shuichi! Is what gentleman does!”

“Oh,” the detective utters. How should he respond to such a direct exclamation of assistance? For someone like Gonta, his response will need some deliberation. If he refuses, Gonta will be upset and worry over him more. He could let Gonta help him, though what would he even do? As he stares into the determined eyes of the other boy, he is suddenly reminded of Kaede. She doesn’t know exactly what to do to help him, but she tries anyway and he appreciates her so much for it. He guesses it can’t hurt to let another friend help him. Kaede says he needs to open more, anyhow. “Thank you, Gonta. You being here is enough for now.”

Gonta beams a smile. Shuichi smiles back.

 

\---

Hmm. It seems when Gonta says he wants to help, he gets pretty overzealous. So far, he’s offered to get him snacks around five times and carried everything he had for him even if it was just a small book from the library. Besides that, he’s good company. Gonta struggles to keep up in conversations, though Shuichi doesn’t expect him to understand everything he’s venting, he’s a great to talk to anyway. He is so involved and honest, more than he could ask for. He’d be unnerved to talk to someone who isn’t honest, it’s more pressure to figure them out. Gonta, though, is an open book. It doesn’t matter who sees, it’s like he has nothing to hide. Shuichi wishes he was more like him in that regard. Why is he so afraid of being vulnerable? Everyone sort of is, even this big guy.

Right now the two loiter in Shuichi’s research lab. He isn’t impressed with it, he kind of hates it, really. It’s too fancy for him, he doesn’t deserve it, and there’s even poison just hanging around for anyone to use. Monokuma really wants a murder, huh? He bets even if he disposes of the poison, he’ll just put more back. What if he blocked them off and hid them? As far as he knows, only Gonta and him looked in this room so far…

“Hey, Gonta?”

“Yes, Shuichi?”

The detective gestures to the cabinet of poison, “Could you help me with something important?” This is very important. The two may have to lie to the others and convince them there’s no poison. He can trust Gonta on this, right? Gonta’s eyes widen as he give him his full attention.

“Of course!”

“This poison could be extremely dangerous. I was thinking we could block it off to hide it. Though, we might also…”

“Also what?”

Shuichi, like Gonta mentioned earlier, is extremely worried about the motive videos. His worst fear is uncovering the truth, it’s why he covers his eyes with his cap, after all. If he’s too scared of uncovering the truth, maybe he could hide it? “We’ll have to keep this a secret, I don’t think everyone has to know about this.”

“Keep secret?” Gonta sounds a bit hesitant. That’s understandable. He compared him to an open book earlier, it’s just a part of his character. Then again, the poison combined with the motives scares Shuichi too much. He’s sure Gonta will understand.

“Please, Gonta? I know you want to protect everyone, but omitting the truth might be the only way to do it.”

The entomologist looks forlornly at the ground for a moment, then dons a steely and determined expression, “Okay, Gonta can keep secret. Friends will be safe! And Gonta promise to help Shuichi.”

Relief. “Thank you, Gonta.” He scrutinizes the contents of the room for an idea on how to hide the poison. Perhaps it shouldn’t be in the room at all? Would Monokuma replace it if it’s outside the room? No, if they removed and replaced it enough times there’d be poison everywhere. Removing them from the room it is, then. “Gonta, do you know any places we could hide the poison?”

Gonta, at being given a task, begins thinking hard right away. They stand there for a few moments, just thinking, until one of them suddenly yells out and startles the other. “Ah!” Gonta exclaims loudly.

The cap nearly falls off his head as he jumps, “What is it?”

With excitement, Gonta informs, “We can hide it in Gonta’s research lab!” His face swaps his smile for a pout, “No one like the lab,” his smile returns, “so no one look!” That’s true, a lot of the other students are off put by the zoo of bugs in the lab, no one would think to find poison there. Gonta, and sometimes Shuichi, will be the only ones who will ever get near the substances if this plan works. Gonta can be trusted, so with no hesitation, Shuichi praises the idea.

“That’s a great idea, Gonta!” The larger boy blushes. “So, next on the agenda is how are we going to move all bottles to the second floor without anyone noticing or getting suspicious? It’d look really odd if we carried random bags from the fifth floor to your lab.”

“Um, there are boxes, will that help?” Boxes… still too suspicious, though it’d be easier to haul with boxes… Shuichi’s eyes land on the terrarium by Gonta’s hip. That’s it!

“We can hide the bottles in the terrariums from your lab!”

Gonta tilts his head, “Why?”

“It’d be suspicious to carry random cargo to your room, but no one would bat an eye at you moving the terrariums.” He makes a nod of understanding. “I need you to grab a big terrarium from you lab, but be careful no one gets suspicious of you, alright? I’ll stand by the door in case anyone tries to come in.”

“Okay! Gonta will be fast!” Like a cheetah chasing its prey, Gonta dashes off so quickly Shuichi has to take a moment to process he’s gone. Okay, the running might be a little suspicious, but he’s too powerful, no one will be able to stop him when he’s like that, they’d be crushed immediately.

During his wait, Shuichi luckily had no one even be curious enough to look into his room. Maybe they think it’s just be a boring library full of big confusing texts. That, or Gonta is just that fast. When the entomologist returns, he’s hugging a medium-sized (which is still big to Shuichi) terrarium to his chest. As he approaches Shuichi, he holds it out to him, “This one good?”

“It’s perfect. Let’s get as many of the bottles in there as we can. Do you think you can carry all those bottles?”

“Yes! Gonta is strong!” Perfect.

Before the two start piling the bottles in the terrarium, Shuichi places a cloth to cover its clear bottom and edges. Gonta can pretend there’s a tarantula in there, or something, and no one will get curious. It turns out that multiple traps back and forth isn’t be necessary, because only bottle is left out and Shuichi can just carry it on his person. When they’re all set, they head out to the second floor lab.

Gonta is able to carry the heavy cargo just fine, but they have to walk slower to preserve the bottles. They do encounter a few people on the way, though Gonta just scares them off by stating he’s taking an aggressive tarantula on a walk. With almost no trouble at all, they make it to the lab.

Gonta stands guard by the door as Shuichi meticulously plans the bottle’s concealment. The insides of the cages where the bugs are seems like a good solution. No one would put their hand in there, but are the bottles secure enough to resist insects gnawing on them? He doesn’t want Gonta to see his bugs end up dead, so he decides against it. Besides, Shuichi doesn’t want to put his hands anywhere near them, either. There are piles of empty terrariums of different sizes in the corner where Gonta must have gotten the one to carry the poison in. He could put some poison in the terrariums at the furthest back of the pile and obscure their view with some cloth and more containers. This should be fine. He gets to work removing the outermost containers and filling up the furthest smallest ones with the poison from the terrarium used to haul them here. He then replaces the containers and then calls out to Gonta.

“Is Shuichi done?”

“Yes, I hid all of the poison in the terrariums at the bottom of that pile, is that alright?

“Is okay! Gonta will be sure to not move them.”

“Thanks again for working with me on this, I know how much you don’t like keeping things from your friends.”

“Is no problem, Shuichi think it helps friends, so Gonta will trust Shuichi!” Shuichi is relieved. He has another friend he can trust in besides Kaede. Of course, it might be difficult to keep this from her. She cares the most about keeping everyone safe, after all, but he has another person to help him, too. Kaede wouldn’t want him to be too dependent on her, anyway.

“That’s good to hear.” He looks to the clock, twelve-thirty. They’ve been working on this for a while, they should leave it be, for now. There’s not much else they can do. “I’m going to head out now, see you later.”

“Gonta had good time with you! Bye!” After Shuichi leaves the lab, Gonta decides to stay and monitor his insects more. He feels good. He was an immense help to Shuichi, he said so himself! Now his friends are a little safer because of them. He’s nervous he’ll blab about the poison unconsciously, though, because people have told him he’s far too trusting or stupid to keep a secret. Well, Shuichi trusts him regardless so he’s not going to devalue the detective’s word. Instead, he’ll just be happy for a bit. A few people do enter his lab to visit him, which he’s extra happy about. Tsumugi seems curious about the lab for a second then leaves shortly. Kokichi runs in to try and goad him into something, but gets scared off by the sight of Gonta handling spiders. He’s right about no one wanting to explore his lab. Looks like all the poison is safely secured!

 

\---

“Shuichi, where were you?” Kaede pouts. He’s been gone since breakfast, obviously Kaede would worry if he’s late to their planned lunch together. The detective starts to worry if he wasn’t being discreet enough while he was running around with Gonta. Well, It doesn’t matter now, he just needs to… lie for now.

“Sorry, I just lost track of time checking out my lab.” That’s not really a lie, is it?

“Aw, geez, you really scared me, you know?” She chastises, “Promise not to be late again?” Okay, this already starting to become hard for him, but it’s fine, he can do this.

“I promise, there’s no need to worry.” That might be another lie, but Shuichi himself doesn’t know whether it’s true or not. He starts feeling guilty, but he made a promise to Gonta. He has to stick through.

The two friends spend their lunch eating clubhouse sandwiches Kirumi made earlier for the others to snack on whenever. It’s odd, Shuichi thinks, how are their captors able to restock everything constantly and without fail for an undetermined amount of time? It’s so peculiar. How powerful are their captors? Why do they provide them with so much? How could a facility this large ever be built in secret? Unless it wasn’t. What if-

“Shuichi?” He hears something. “Shuichi!” Kaede shouts in his ear. Shuichi startles and nearly falls off his chair.

“Huh?”

“You’ve been out of it for a while and you wouldn’t respond, what’s wrong?”

“N-nothing, just thinking.”

“Oh, alright,” Kaede shifts her eyes then leans in to whisper, “Can I tell you something?”

“Sure?”

“Promise you won’t freak out?”

“O-of course not! What is it?”

She closes her eyes and takes well-controlled deep breath. She must use some breathing techniques for stage fright, he imagines. What comes out of her mouth is the topic of one of his biggest fears. “The motive video’s target is Gonta.” This sentence says a lot. One, she looked at the motive video. Two, it’s inferred he’s the only one she’s told so far. Three, Gonta? He doesn’t respond, so Kaede fills the gap, “I’m sorry… I had second thoughts about just ignoring the motive videos. I had to know why, and how, you know? Though I don’t expect that explanation will help.”

“Kaede…” The pianist can hear the disappointment dripping from his mouth. “I’m glad you came to me about this, but...” Now Shuichi is more worried than ever. Is it that serious that Kaede looked? Maybe it’s a video of nothing, but… if she couldn’t resist, what about the others? Now how can they trust each other? “You know what this means, don’t you?”

“Monokuma got what he wants, We’re suspecting each other and everyone elses, huh?”

“...”

“Isn’t it odd, though? Remember what Kaito said earlier? How could all of us have motives about Gonta, of all people?”

“That’s right… Out of all of us, why would they target him?”

“That’s what I thought! I’ve been thinking, what if we looked at more motive videos?”

“What?”

“Hear me out… We want to figure why he’s the target, right?”

“Sure, but this is going behind everyone’s backs!” He should talk. He and Gonta have plenty to hide since this morning. Should he confess as well? Although he’d then be betraying Gonta’s trust… he doesn’t know what to do. His previous ideas about keeping secrets for the greater good is already falling apart. He can’t decide, both Kaede and Gonta will be keeping secrets with him. Should he just… keep both of their secrets? Kaede looks really guilty now… It’s decided, he’ll keep both secrets in an effort to help everyone. Right now, it’s the least he can think to do.

He trusts the Kaede he knew while they survived the execution, when they worked together. “If you think this will help us find out something about our situation, then I’ll trust you.” He barely sees the transition between her sorrow and her glee.

“Shuichi!” To accompany her smile, she raises her fists in a determined pose, “I won’t let you down. Let’s find out what’s going on!”

The two decide to meet up in Shuichi’s room after Kaede grabs her motive video. In his room, they place the motive videos next to each other on the desk. They are completely identical, down to the paint splatter patterns.

“I’ll show you mine, first. It’s the oddest thing I’ve ever seen, but I can’t help but feel like it’s half-true.”

“Gonta Gokuhara!” Kaede’s video screams, “The son of the rich and refined Gokuhara family.” Photographs of the exterior and interior of the estate accompany the audio. “Of course, for a family so wealthy, it was no problem hiring the highly esteemed Ultimate Pianist to their biggest, fanciest, sixteenth birthday for their precious son! Rich bastards… Anyway, you and your biggest supporter, your twin sister, dressed up to the nines to attend the most prestigious event in your lives!” An image appears of Kaede in extremely fancy pink apparel and a girl nearly identical to her dressed extravagantly in red. “You two had so much fun, and you even met the birthday boy himself.” An image of the twins introducing themselves appear, but a similar image except without her sister follows after. “Uh-oh, what’s this? After you’re big show, you can’t find your sister anywhere! You, and your new friend Gonta, search everywhere in the massive estate, but she’s nowhere to be found. Every person you ask claims ignorance to her whereabouts and it seems she’s vanished off the face of the earth! Eventually, nearing the end of the party, Gonta shares a secret with you.” Scenes shift to blurry, far away photos of individuals entering the estate. “He suspects that something sinister is behind your sister’s disappearance, because he’s seen his family involved in corrupt practices. Suspicious people meeting with his parents, staff going missing, all of that jazz.” Finally, a school profile picture of her sister flashes on the screen. “And then… That’s it! If you want to know what happened to your sister, you’ll need to graduate! Good luck~”

Kaede comments, “I didn’t know Gonta’s family was that rich, if I knew him before that’s definitely something I’d remember, along with the fact that he existed in the first place.” She recalls back to her meeting Gonta after waking up in the locker. She had no recollection of him whatsoever.

“You’re right. Let’s take a look at my video, now.”

“Gonta Gokuhara!” The remaining video announces, “The boy who went missing!” The screen shows Shuichi’s uncle’s agency from the outside. Next it shows the interior of a room with his uncle consulting with a distressed-looking couple. “For years, the Gokuharas had hired your uncle’s agency to find their son. Your uncle worked tirelessly to uncover the truth, but as more and more time passed he started giving up. When this happened, the Gokuharas became more adamant, raising the reward for finding him until eventually… your uncle’s agency went right down under!” Er, did that happen? “It wasn’t until you came along with your ultimate detective skills and saved the day! Gonta was found! Uh, oh, what’s this? It seems that soon after someone was found, another disappeared.” His uncle’s face flashes on screen. “Your uncle practically fell of the face of the earth, and the Gokuharas are the most suspicious of all! Do you want to use your skills to find him? Well, you know what to do!”

“This… doesn’t make any sense,” Shuichi states simply. He was dubbed the ultimate detective after his first case, which he made less than half a year ago. This had to have happened after that. That’s a pretty short timeframe for him to find a missing child and inadvertently cause the collapse of his uncle’s agency.

“Right? Did the bears really take our memories, or are these fake?” There are really only a few possibilities. All of the videos are real, all of them are fake, or some of them are real and some of them fake. No matter the reason, why would they make these? What’s the point of making these ridiculous motives about Gonta? Is any of this real?

“I, um, I’m sorry to hear about your sister, if what we were shown is true…? What’s her name?”

“That’s easy, it’s… um, Kikuko? No, it’s Kurenai… I think…” Panic seeps into her voice, “Why can’t I remember?”

At her distress and the growing mystery, Shuichi asks, “What else do you remember about your sister?”

She closes her eyes and focuses, “She… supported me… she was with me my whole life as far as I remember. She likes… um. The last time I saw her was…” Her face showcases her frustration, “Shuichi I think our kidnappers took way more of our memories than we thought. I can only remember what this video is telling me… I definitely have a sister, and if it knows that, I think my video is telling at least a bit of the truth.”

“But, I ‘remember’ the things my motive video is telling me as well, and logically, they can’t both have happened.”

“Are you sure?” He gives no response, so she continues, “It’s not impossible that we both happen to be involved with Gonta… Sure, it’s odd that if everyone’s motive videos were real, but what if Gonta’s the target because all of us know him somehow? Or… what if we were kidnapped because we all know him?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your mastermind theory, do you think…?” She doesn’t need to say it, he gets her insinuation. He really doesn’t want that to be true, he just made a close friend out of him. Is this the truth he has to uncover? He’s not sure he can handle that. “Shuichi, I really think if we figure out these motive videos, we’ll figure out our entire situation.” If that’s the case…

“Alright. I’m hesitant to start suspecting Gonta, though if you really think we should investigate these motive videos, I’m with you all the way.” They smile at each other. It’s time to make another plot to uncover the mastermind, this time not-so-secret.

The two first spend a good portion of their time scheming a way to look at more videos, and another portion debating what is ethically acceptable in their endeavor. They then finally bid temporary farewells after establishing their plan.

…

Now what should Shuichi do? The plan doesn’t start until tomorrow morning. He could do his own investigating in private exploring the academy, or he could take a nice relaxing break exploring the academy. Exploring it is, then. He hasn’t seen the area within the daunting stone walls. From what he’s heard, it’s a casino and… what was it? A hotel, or something. Weird, considering they already have places to sleep right by it. There’s some time before dinner, so he can explore the area without rush.

This is the fanciest place he has ever stepped foot in. Meticulously placed stone paths trail over crystal clear water to an extravagant and flashy casino and… a love hotel. This is so unprecedented and unnecessary. He shifts his cap to obscure more of his view of the hotel as he walks up to the casino.

The inside is an obnoxiously over saturated display of red and gold everywhere. He hears tons of machines’ music and recordings overlapping one another from the floor below.

“Rise and shine, ursine!” The cubs manifest within the room suddenly to greet the guest.

“Welcome to the casino! This facility will fulfill all of your gambling desires!” Monotaro shouts.

“Just trade your monocoins for casino coins and you can get started right away!” Monofunny cheers.

“AT-THE-EXCHANGE-COUNTERS-YOU-CAN-EXCHANGE-COINS-FOR-PRIZES”

“C’mon and gamble your life away!” Monokid screams.

“So long, bear-well!” They leave as fast as they come.

So it seems their only purpose was to tell him what the casino is for. He decides not to question why their captors would ever provide them with a casino and just hang around for a bit. The reception counter gives him ten casino coins for a single monocoin. Pretty good. He takes his haul of five hundred casino coins and heads downstairs.

The noise is much louder downstairs than upstairs as expected. He glances around at the machines. There are… slot machines, a fishing game, a race car game, and a treasure-hunting simulator. He starts with the slots. It seems that luck is on his side, because he gets only a positive outcome from each spin. He plays some more. He gets to six hundred, one thousand and four hundred, three thousand and nine hundred and so on and so on until he reaches an impressive amount of twenty thousand and five hundred only possible through hours of sitting in front of a machine. Between sessions of mindless playing he exchanges his coins for ties, brooches, food, everything he can get with his current haul. In his blind completionism, he even grabs a key for the hotel.

Finally, he jolts back to reality when he hears the clock chime eight. With his new hefty haul of casino coins and prizes, he jogs up the stairs and out of the casino. As he exits the double doors, he sees…

Gonta. He’s lying on his stomach with his top half completely submerged in the water. In a blind panic, he sprints and screams, “Gonta!” He gets no response, even as he screams his name right next to him. He kneels down by the body to grab his shoulder to haul him out when suddenly Gonta shoots his body out of the water to a kneeling position.

“Hello, Shuichi!” At his sudden movement, Shuichi screams in fear and clutches his heart before fully processing the sight in front of him. Gonta is completely okay, just soaked in water from the torso up. He is not a zombie, ghost, or anything of the sort, thank goodness, he’s completely alive. His thick green hair, heavy with the weight of the water, sticks to the contours of his face including in front of his eyes. The soaked boy parts his hair to see Shuichi’s shocked state and grows concerned, “Shuichi, what’s wrong?”

“I-I’m fine, but what about you? What were you doing?”

He responds cheerfully, “Gonta was looking for bugs in water!” The boy suddenly squints at the detective, and Shuichi realizes there is something missing from his face. “Ah! Gonta’s glasses gone!” With no hesitation, he stands and faces the water, then dives straight down.

Shuichi just barely manages to avoid getting splashed. He peers over the sidewalk’s edge and sees Gonta clearly through the pristine water, wading through the after as if it wasn’t there. Geez, how deep does this go? He waits a minute. Two minutes. Five minutes in the water is unnatural and worrying. Did he just witness a drowning and do nothing about it? Should he call for someone? He is just about to make a mad dash to find someone when Gonta, with incredible strength, breaks the surface of the water, rises a few wet above Shuichi, then lands with mighty ‘thunk’ in front of him. A moment later the rest of the water follows and dunks him again with Shuichi just barely avoiding the brunt of it. Gonta triumphantly holds his glasses in one hand with a big grin on his face. Is this person really the target of the videos? He seems so… innocent, and like he stated before a completely open book.

Deciding to put those thoughts off until later, he informs Gonta, “It’s almost time for dinner, are you coming?”

“Oh! Of course! Thank you for telling Gonta! He will go right away!”

“Er, maybe you should change into some dry clothes first?”

“Huh?” As if forgetting his current state, he looks down at his clothes. “You right! Gonta can’t go to dinner like this!” Humorously, Shuichi thinks to himself that Got a sounds like a distressed princess getting ready for the ball. Speaking of being dressed…

“Hey, Gonta, I got a lot of prizes from the casino that, looking back on it, I really don’t need.” He pulls out a ladybug brooch from an inner pocket, “Do you want this?”

The entomologist looks at Shuichi like he’s giving him the world. With a hesitant hand, he grabs the glamorous adornment. “T-thank you! Gonta love it very much!” He pins it to his chest and marvels at it. Shuichi smiles at this display. He’s glad he could make Gonta happy.

 

\---

Dinner is not as much of a complication as he imagined it to be. He expected having to dodge questions and lock his mouth shut to prevent himself from revealing his secrets. Other than giving away some of the useless prizes he got at the casino, it turns out it’s completely the same as the other meals they’ve had together. Everyone crowds around him at the table to see what possible prizes they could win at the casino themselves. Some become convinced to try their hand at it after seeing Gonta’s new brooch. Things are completely fine. That is, until he realizes he never put away the remaining bottle of poison, specifically strychnine, that he stashed in his pocket.

He narrowly avoids questioning by snatching it back into his possession when he notices it among the pile of prizes he dumps onto the table. He needs to take care of this as soon as possible, he can’t take any chances with having bottles out in the open. Unfortunately, there’s too much attention on him handing out random gifts. Maybe he could sneak it to Gonta, and he could take it to his lab and come back. He strolls up to Gonta and taps his arm.

“Hey, Gonta,” he addresses with obvious intent, “I have something else you might want. Give me your hands.” At his prompting, Gonta forms his hands into a cup. Shuichi carefully hides the bottle within both of his hands and places it on top of Gonta’s palms. He then pushes Gonta’s fingers closed. It takes Gonta a second to understand, but as soon as he does, he begins the cover up.

“Thank you! Gonta will keep it safe!” With his large hands still obviously covering up something, he exits the dining hall. That could’ve gone better, but no one suspects Gonta. Nobody except… Kaede…

She doesn’t quite glare, though she does point a sharper look at him as he leaves. That’s right, Gonta is a suspect. It’s odd. He would think Kaede’s first thought would be to protect him after watching the motive videos, but of course, the extreme oddity of their contents makes pretty unexpected results.

He wonders how he can handle juggling two secrets at once. This is going to be… complicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kaede and Shuichi are thematically and plot-relatively inseparable, okay?


	11. Shuichi Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi's secrets begin conflicting with each other, and he can't stop the consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! Here you are~

Gonta runs like the wind up the stairs and to his lab. The precious, or dangerous, cargo he holds must be disposed of immediately! He bursts into his room. He can feel his heartbeat race, not from his run but from his disproportionate fear of not completing his task. He has his friends to think about! 

He bursts through the doors to his lab unworried of unintended ears from hearing him. Everyone is at dinner except for him, so he has no time to worry about being covert.

Shuichi said he hid the bottles in his pile of terrariums, so he should hide the remaining one there. He carefully un-stack the terrariums as he hunts through them. A-ha! There they are, in the very corner, scattered across different containers. He places his bottle in a random terrarium it can fit in, then meticulously re-stacks everything as they were before. He wonders why Shuichi didn’t put away this one earlier. There’s nothing Shuichi would need to use the bottle for. Did it just slip his mind? Probably. 

Looking at the pile in front of him again invokes some guilt within him. Can he really be responsible enough to help everyone this way? He didn’t have any responsibility in the mountains besides babysitting some wolf pups ie. snuggling up with them and snarling at predators. This is very different. He’s trapped in a completely unnatural place with artificial bears. There is no knowing what will happen to them. He’s not very smart, but from what he gathered from the speeches Kaede and Kaito have said, the key to surviving is to trust each other, don’t fall for Monokuma’s tricks… That last one will be hard. He’s been told he’s gullible, oblivious, and dumb. Does he even have what it takes to help anyone? That’s okay, because he decides to look on the bright side, the others trust him, and that should tell him enough! A gentleman trusts his friends, so he should trust their trust in him, right?

\---

Kaede gives Shuichi a look. She must think it’s around a good time to start the first phase of their investigation. Dinner is halfway through, though she might think it’s the best time because her primary “suspect” is gone for the moment. He nods back to her.

When they previously conspired together, they agreed that all they can do for now is to interview the students for an iota of a clue. The goal is to either learn what the other students think about the situation or determine if the students themselves are suspicious. Pretty crude, honestly, but they can’t concoct anything like their previous escapade during the first motive. At least they have far more time for this task. The two silently and discreetly approach Kaito, who is busy shooing away Kokichi. As soon as he succeeds, they address him.

“Kaito,” Kaede calls.

He turns to them and greets, “Hey, guys. What’s up?” 

“Have you, um,” Kaede starts, “Is there anything you’ve found suspicious? We’re trying to find some more about why we’re here.” One of their prior agreements while the two met up is to not be as secretive this time and to only hide what they think will tear their network apart, which is basically the fact that they looked at the motive video, for now. 

Kaito obliges, “If suspicious is what you’re looking for, just look over there,” he points with his thumb at a certain supreme leader. He dismisses it as a joke, however, and continues seriously, “Other than that, nothing besides the fact that they want us to play a dumb game, of all things.”

“Is that all?” Shuichi asks.

Kaito ponders for a moment before responding, “I was thinking… if the mastermind wants us to distrust each other, wouldn’t that put them in more danger, too? I mean, if you’re mastermind theory is right, that’d be something to think about.”

This is something Shuichi had not even considered before. Should he rethink his theory? Maybe he’ll just abandon it, since he doesn’t have much more proof. Kaede, however, is hooked. 

“Why do you think suspicion or danger would fall on them?” she interrogates seriously.

“I’m just saying, unless they have a surefire way of surviving this game, they’re just setting themselves up.”

“...” Kaede thinks deeply on the information, but can’t make any connections. 

Feeling that they’ve gotten what they could from Kaito, Shuichi says, “Thanks, Kaito. Let us know if you have anything else to tell us.”

“Sure thing, man.” Kaito moves on to start a conversation with another student, so the mystery duo backs off to find another person to interview. 

They spot Kiibo by himself at the end of the table. Thinking him a good subject, they approach him.

Kaede greets, “Hi, Keebo.” 

“Oh, hello there, Kaede, Shuichi. What do you need?”

“We just want to know what you think about our situation or if you’ve found anything… odd, lately. Can you share anything?” Kaede asks politely.

“Oh, well, some recent discoveries are that all of the labs are scarily accommodated to everyone’s personal preferences… all of them except mine, at least.”

Shuichi speaks up, “Is that true?” He mutters, “I haven’t found mine very pleasing…” 

Kaede ponders over the implications. “This just adds to the mystery of how grandly built this place really is. For example, how could they know what settings I always use on my audio equipment?”

Kiibo looks shocked. “For their information about us to be so meticulous, they must be a powerful organization!”

“If they have the means of getting this information, why aren’t our labs to our standards?” Shuichi questions. 

“I can't explain your case, but in mine, I’m guessing it’s because I’m a robot.” A sour expression crosses his face. He is clearly bothered by this fact. 

Kaede sweats, “Well, I imagine it was just harder to find things like that about the two of you.” She playfully nudges Shuichi. “Looks like we’ve found another lead for an investigation, don’t you think?” 

“Yeah, his seems like a good aspect of the mystery to tackle. Kiibo, is that all you can think of?”

“For now, yes.”

“Thanks, Keebo, you've helped Shuichi and I a lot!”

A smile graces his lips, “Glad to be of help!”

With this interview done, Kaede turns to Shuichi to find a new student. “Let’s move on to-“ she cuts herself off at the re-entrance of a certain someone. “I think we have enough to go on, for now.”

Shuichi, confused, asks her, “Don’t you think we should keep going?”

“No, I’m a bit scared of being suspected for asking so many questions at once, anyway.” As she says this, she shifts her eyes to Gonta for just a second. “Let’s parse this out, alright?”

Shuichi can figure she’s hiding something, something big enough that it infects their investigation. He’s a bit disheartened that Kaede won’t just tell him, but he figures there’s a possibility that she either wants privacy or some sort of confirmation before she can. He lets it go for the moment, opting instead to say, “Alright, don’t hesitate to tell me about anything you’ve found, alright?”

“...Alright.” The two decide they’ve held off from eating their own dinner long enough. After getting their servings from Kirumi, they take their seats at the table filled with rambunctious debate. Swept up in the waves of conversation topics changing as rapidly as the water flows, they arrive at the end of dinner. It’s late enough that the majority excuse themselves to slumber in their dorms.

Shuichi, having become exhausted from the currents of socialization, trudges to his dorm room. A lot of information clutters his mind, but no matter how hard he tries he can’t make sense of them. As if thought has weight, they pull down at his eyelids and make the simple action of walking a bigger ordeal.

Through his narrower and hazy vision, he spots Gonta’s unmistakable large silhouette, a dark violet in the night’s minimal light. The figure walks closer to him, so he runs his eyes to as If to wipe away the fuzziness. 

“Shuichi,” Gonta greets. He exudes his natural friendly aura as he converses with him, “Gonta want to tell you that he safely put away poi-bottle!”

“I knew I could count on you, Gonta, thank you.” 

The large boy beams at the praise, a source of warmth combatting the cold night. Though, his warmth dissipates as he shifts to a more serious tone, a type akin to bitter-sweetness. His eyes show tenderness, while his brows furrow in apprehension. His voice is low and soft, “Um, Gonta not know how to say this, but… Thank you!”

“Huh?”

“Gonta always try really hard to be good gentleman, but he never get it right. That why no one really trust Gonta, or talk to him, or be nice to him…” 

Actually, Shuichi is sure from personal experience that that probably isn’t why people treat him less than ideally. There are other reasons, not necessarily because of Gonta’s character, or even any of his flaws, but due to humanity’s habit of shunning people who are different. Gonta is a clear example of ‘different’, and he doesn’t even have enough familiarity with human protocol that he doesn’t even realize that he’s being treated wrongly. He’s learned to believe that this is how humanity simply is, and that he’s getting fair treatment. The detective, no matter how much he wants to inform Gonta that he deserves better, doesn’t even know how to begin to explain, so instead continues to listen to Gonta’s words.

“But with Shuichi, Gonta not feel so nervous about being not good gentleman. You nice, and… you trust Gonta!” His voice becomes clearer and louder, “You give Gonta responsibility, and he is really happy to be given Shuichi’s faith. So, what Gonta really say is, thank you for believing in Gonta!” 

Hearing the sincerity and fervor of Gonta’s gratitude, his heart flutters. He was this influential to Gonta? He has to remember that what he considers common, Gonta thinks the opposite, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to him. Still, he feels good about being appreciated. “Gonta, of course I would trust you. Honestly, I think people should have more faith in you.”

Gonta lowers his head in a minimal effort to hide his blush. “Really?”

He confirms the question with a firmer tone, “Of course. You shouldn’t worry about being a good person, you clearly are one because you try so hard. We all appreciate how much you care to protect us.” The more he praises Gonta, the more bashful the both of them become, although Shuichi has an easier time subduing himself. Gonta, meanwhile, nearly becomes a mess, covering his face with his hands and even rocking on his feet. Under his hands, Shuichi can tell there’s a smile. 

“No…” he denies quietly.

Shuichi has none of it, “Really, I mean it.”

“...Um… hahah, um...” The blushing boy has some difficulty getting some words through his embarrassment. He finally utters out a quiet, “Thank you,” and a “Good night,” before scampering to the dorms. 

Shuichi’s mood has significantly increased from that encounter. He can safely say that his worry since the release of the motives has lifted greatly because of Gonta. Feeling rejuvenated, he starts for his nightly routine with more cheer than before.

The night of rest did not wear down Kaede’s dedication in the slightest. Usually, her kind of energy is something Shuichi has trouble matching, but yesterday’s talk with Gonta revitalized him. 

The next phase of their investigation is the re-inspection of multiple areas of the school in the hopes of discovering things they’ve missed before with fresh eyes and a new framework. They start with the most familiar and obviously suspicious, the library. Just as always, it’s dusty and a mess. During the first motive, the threat of mass execution, he and Kaede had set up a plot in this very room. It fell apart when the execution was revealed to be a bluff, and they are no closer to discovering who the mastermind is. Kaede, an optimist, likes to think that because they tried to catch the mastermind, they had to cancel their plans.

Shuichi opens the bookcase hiding the black and white door with a familiarity he dislikes. “Here, I’m not sure what we’ll find that we didn’t see the first times we’ve opened this.”

“Don’t be so negative, Shuichi. We made plans to reinvestigate the academy, and who knows? Something may have changed since the last time we’ve looked. Has the dust moved at all?”

“...No, it’s still there. I don’t know if it’s the exact same, but there’s still too much dust for a card to have gone through.”

“Hmm, maybe we should just monitor who comes into the library at all if the mastermind is so allergic to this door,” she jokes.

“Heh. That’d be a lot of people to monitor. We have a lot of academic ultimates, after all. Even Gonta found stuff he liked in here.” At the last sentence, Kaede stiffens ever so slightly. Regardless of how little she reacted, however, Shuichi can detect it. It’s not hard, especially since Kaede has been a bit off before now. Do these have to do with the same thing? “Kaede, are you alright? You look tense.”

The pianist attempts to dispel Shuichi’s curiosity by overly casually responding, “Yeah, I’m totally fine, nothin’ to worry about.”

“...Are you sure?” He feels the displacement of the air as the bookcase closes automatically.

Kaede pauses to find an answer. She’s been feeling the increasing pressure to confess her thoughts to Shuichi, and around now is her breaking point. The troubling subject stewing in her mind has grown with the evidence she and Shuichi have investigated, and she has a an inkling of a hypothesis she thinks is too important to ignore, yet she still can’t say it aloud. She knows she’s being a bit hypocritical; she’s been promoting honesty ever since she arrived here. This is another source of pressure to confess, but Kaede is stubborn. She can see her prolonged silence begins to concern Shuichi, so she finally blurts, “I have an idea… but I don’t want to take it too seriously.”

The detective puts all of his attention on her. “What is it?”

“I think maybe that… Gonta could be the mastermind, or at least actively involved in how we got here.”

He has nothing to say to that. He doesn’t find it so ridiculous to not be worth his time, not at all. Instead he fears the possibility of it. “Really? Why do you think so?”

“There’s nothing concrete! It’s just, it makes too much sense for me to dismiss it…” For a moment, an awkward silence hangs above their heads until Kaede musters up the strength to back her theory. “I’ll list the reasons why, and if you find something doesn’t add up, point it out, alright? I don’t want this to be true either, but I think we should explore it.”

“...Alright, but do your best to defend your argument, we want to scrutinize every aspect of your theory.”

“Got it. So let’s see… One, the basis for my theory, the motive videos. Presumably, they all hint that each and every one of us has some sort of connection with Gonta. The people who kidnapped us have this information somehow. Gonta could atleast be a willing or unwilling source of information for our kidnappers. Two: He is physically the safest out of all of us, and if he’s faking his obliviousness and pacifist personality, he has every capability of defending himself from murder.”

Shuichi interjects, “I find a problem with that.”

“You don’t think he could be a good actor?”

“No, not quite. I don’t think there’s much benefit to pretending to be harmless. Making himself a target and ensuring a means of protecting himself seems contradictory to me.”

“I guess that makes sense… Maybe his goal is to cause distrust, instead? It’s kind of working, considering…”

“Why don’t you continue?”

“Right, so number three… he knew that the motive videos got to you, so he seeked you out.” She sees the expression on Shuichi’s face and admits, “I know, it’s pretty weak. I just thought I’d add it. Um, I think that’s it for now.”

“If that’s all, I don’t think we can really make any connections to incriminate Gonta.”

“Hmm. We don’t have proof that he’s not the mastermind either… guess we’re at square one.”

“It was still good to investigate. You also suggested that he’s an unknowing accomplice, that could be a lead.“ While he seems calm on the outside, he harbors inner turmoil. He really, really hopes that Gonta has no connection to their predicament, and if he was, he hopes it’s unintentional. How can he trust him with the poison now that he’s heard all of this? It’s nothing but theory, but trust is easily broken, even to no fault of the recipient. 

“If you say so.” Kaede takes a final cursory glance around the library before deciding, “Let’s go check out somewhere else, I think we’ve gotten all we could from here.” 

The two decide to place their focus on research labs. They spend a significant portion of their morning and afternoon investigating, and only manage to go through three of them due to their meticulousness. Kaede’s lab has no hidden switches behind the CD racks. Himiko’s, while storing plenty of dangerous items, have no use besides their illusions. The Ultimate Maid’s research lab has nothing out of ordinary either. Done with part of the first floor, they move on to…

The Ultimate Entomologist’s research lab.

At first, Shuichi thinks nothing of it. As Kaede reaches for the door, however, he realizes very quickly his secret with Gonta. He has only a split second to decide: confess to Kaede and make her think Gonta is the mastermind, or that he’s the mastermind and lose her trust, or steer her away and only make her raise a brow at him. He decides the latter, then starts debating what excuse to use. He doesn’t know. It’s too late anyway, for Kaede steps through the door, a portal to beyond Shuichi’s reach. Now instead he grasps for some sort of excuse to bring her back out. 

Kaede, oblivious to the attempts to whisk her away from her objective, wanders around. She stares uneasily at the rows upon rows of samples on the walls and the rows upon rows of environments housing eggs and larvae. Shuichi looks over and silently agrees with whatever she is thinking.Then a light bulb goes off. 

“Hey, this room kind of grosses me out, do you want to check some other labs out before this one?”

Kaede, the stubborn optimist, flushes his suggestion down the toilet, “No, if anything, I think that’s more reason to investigate. Anything could be hidden in a place no one wants to go, am I right?” She doesn’t notice how Shuichi’s last remaining shreds of fortitude shatter with his idea. “Although, I think I’ll leave the eggs for last…” She looks around for an easy start. “I’ll flip through the books on that table. Do want to check that pile of terrariums?”

Yes, he absolutely would. He covers up his extreme relief with a casual, “Sure,” and gets right to taking advantage of the opportunity. While Kaede is busy scanning through each book, he makes an act of scrutinizing the terrariums by moving them around then placing them back in almost the same spot. He doesn’t need to search, anyway, because he already knows what’s among them. When he takes a swift glance towards Kaede to see her pile of unfinished books dwarfed by the height of her completed books pile, he makes his next move.

Standing up and stretching out his back, he says, “I think I’ll move on to checking the walls.” Without sparing him a glance, she gives a lazy hum in response. Perfect. Now he can do some actual investigation. He starts with the portion of the wall to the right of the doors. He alternates between knocking on the walls for hollow sounds and looking under the frames of the bug samples. At some point he hears Kaede get up and pays it no attention, too engrossed with flipping over every single frame. 

“Huh, what’s this?” Shuichi figures she found an odd bug she’s never seen before, or a weirdly-shaped piece of equipment, so he doesn’t bother turning away from the wall. Those thoughts are quickly dashed by her next shouting out, “This is-!” and the sound of tupperware falling and bumping into each other.

He spins around so fast he nearly gives himself whiplash. He sees before anything else the bottle labeled strychnine, then the hand holding it, and finally the person attached to it, whose expression symbolizes the epitome of shock and newly confirmed distrust. He tries to say, “That’s not what you think,” but chokes up after the second word. Gonta hid the bottle away from the main pile, just a bit to the further back of the room. Why was he not more thorough? Did-did he take the promise to not touch the terrariums that literally? 

To Kaede, the poison confirms her every suspicion for a theory she was willing to dismiss, and now she holds one of the most dangerous items in the academy. With this evidence, she no longer has any qualms of suspecting a friend. “Shuichi, come over here, there could be more.”

He awkwardly makes his way over and mumbling weak protests. The only option he has left is to confess, but it looks to be too late for that, too. What will happen if Kaede tells everyone about this? He has no choice. “Kaede.” She turns to him, and he sees clearly her resolve in her furrowed eyebrows and frown. “That isn’t what you think, I put-”

“Oh! Kaede, Shuchi. What are you doing in Gonta’s lab?” The door opens suddenly. The mystery duo whip their heads towards the speaker, adrenaline high. Gonta doesn’t notice their fear. His eyes light up and he asks, “You want to meet bug friends?” 

Kaede, fearful of what the mastermind could do to her and Shuichi, takes a cautious stance. She grips the bottle in her hand tightly, away from his bespeckled eyes. He’s big, but there’s a gap wide enough for her and Shuichi to dash through. Slowly, she takes Shuichi’s hand. Then she bolts.

Gonta’s wild hair nearly entraps her, but she makes it through. Shuichi is resistant of her grip, so she holds on tighter. She sprints until she reaches the front door entrance, and even then she wildly searches around for any sign of the wolf boy. Shuichi crumples down next to her, too exhausted to even stand or speak out. She speaks for him, “He’s not following us, I don’t think, but that doesn’t mean the bears won’t come and get us. We have to do something about this now.” Shuichi only wheezes in response.

The poor entomologist is left in the dust. What happened? Kaede was here, and so was Shuichi… but they ran. It couldn’t have been because of the bugs, they wouldn’t have come in the first place. Was it… him? He tries to remember what he’s done to warrant dislike. Yesterday, he spilled some tea. He cleaned it the best he could, though, and even Kirumi helped. This morning he took some bugs out to the courtyard. Korekiyo saw them and got spooked, and so did Kaito, Tsumugi, and Kokichi. When he brought them back to his lab, he counted all of them to make sure he didn’t miss any, so one couldn’t have run off and been naughty. Just in case, he should grab a net and terrarium-

The poison bottle is gone. He begins to panic. Does Shuichi know? He was just here, so maybe he saw it. Actually, if he was here with Kaede, did he tell Kaede? No, he wouldn’t break their promise. That must mean someone took it. He.... has to do something! Swiftly turning on his heel, he makes a dash to somewhere, everywhere around the school to find the bottle, or a victim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha..ha.... misunderstandings, amirite?


	12. Shuichi Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shuichi works his hardest to make things right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays~ Enjoy this Christmas day update!

Kaede and her hapless hostage burst through the front doors. The sun’s light that pours down through the cage bars greets her by tickling at her skin, enveloping her in a familiar warmth.

 

She has never been more terrified in her entire life. Her heart’s beat becomes a staccato, and seems to only pump the life-saving adrenaline in an inconsistent rhythm. Babump. She can hear it. She compares the need to constantly monitor her surroundings to a game of paintball but a thousand times worse. Her breathing has no rhyme or reason, and her eyes dart every which way for any sign of her enemies, Gonta or the bears. She unconsciously tightens her grip on Shuichi’s hand to reassure herself he’s still safe and by her side. Now that she knows who amongst them is the mastermind, or at the very least a traitor, she needs to figure out what to do before the Exisals inevitably come out to annihilate her, a final heroic action that will help her friends as they escape. She could try to find and break into their control center, or tell everybody who the mastermind is. No, she can’t tell anyone, that puts them in danger. She clutches the bottle in her hand tighter, the proof of betrayal. What if she-

 

“K-Kaede…!” her partner calls out to her. She whips her head around to face him. Maybe he figured something out! 

 

“Yes! Shuichi! What is it?” She asks in an excitement both hopeful and nervous.

 

She stares intently as Shuichi takes a moment before shouting through his heavy breathing, “Gonta’s not the mastermind!” …? 

 

Her instinctual high-strung jumping around lowers to the occasional glancing behind her and keeping an ear out, but she is otherwise completely still. She stares with wide eyes at the confessor. Gonta being the mastermind was the only thing on her mind during the thrill of the run, this contradiction puts her in vertigo. In hopes of dispelling the contradiction with the only explanation she can conjure, hesitantly, she asks, “So... you think he’s a willing participant?” 

 

“No!” Shuichi struggles against his inner barriers preventing him from admitting his sin and tearing down the faith Kaede, and very possibly the rest of his classmates, have in him. He shouts, “I put the poison in Gonta’s lab!” 

 

...

 

There is deafening silence, but Shuichi thinks he can hear her faith for him shattering. He turns away and lowers his cap in anticipation for the inevitable exclamations of shock and demands for explanation. He doesn’t wait long.

 

“W-what! Why?” Kaede can say nothing else. She trusts him too much to immediately brand him as a traitor, but she worries it will lead to their downfall. She asks frantically, “Why didn’t you tell me about that before? Wait, w-w-what does this mean, then? I…” It feels like her brain is frying. The other takes that as an opportunity to explain himself.

 

Shuichi inhales some more life-saving oxygen then admits, “I didn’t want anyone to know there was poison in the academy, so I asked Gonta to help me hide them. Since disposing of them wasn’t an option… we-I chose to put them in his lab and we promised each other to keep it secret.”

 

Kaede shakes her head. “B-but why did you ask Gonta? He was suspicious, wasn’t he?”

 

“That was before I knew he was the target.”

 

So, Kaede ran from Gonta for no reason. Her face goes red in embarrassment. Not only that,  Kaede is not getting the answers she wants out of this interrogation. She wants to hear Shuichi more regretful, and for him to say that he was terrified, too terrified to even confide in her. Instead she sees Shuichi admitting these sins like they’re unimportant. There are so many issues she finds with this. There wasn’t any immediate threat that prevented him from considering her a potential ally, so why didn’t he? She decides to create her own answer, one she dislikes. “Then when I showed you my motive video, why didn’t you tell me? Do… do you not trust me?” Of course she feels a bit hypocritical in saying this, considering her own recent mechaniations, but Shuichi was supposed to trust her the most, dammit!

 

Shuichi’s eyes widen, “No, that’s not it! I still trusted Gonta, so I kept the secret, just like he was! I didn’t mean for things to be this way…” he falls flat on his defense and retreats to silence.

 

The question was rhetorical. It didn’t matter what reason Shuichi had. Regardless, Kaede begrudgingly focuses on the more important issue. “Shuichi… this is so dangerous, and…” she closes her eyes and sighs, “I’m going to tell everyone about the poison, they have the right to know about the things that could hurt them.”

 

“What? You shouldn’t do that!” This is not what Shuichi expected out of her. She made a plan to be secretive, just like he did, both in the last few days and during the first motive. He thought she’d at least understand the importance!

 

Kaede nearly screams to Shuichi, “As much as I’d like to believe in you, I can’t overlook the fact that there’s  _ poison _ in this school! I can’t completely trust that it won’t be found and used while we all scramble to figure out how the culprit got their hands on a non-existent poison!”

 

“...” 

 

They lay in awkward silence for a while. Both parties have jarring personal contradictions to deal with, but they are unable to figure out if they should deal with it alone or with each other, the person they hurt, not to mention the third party, completely unaware of the conflict they’ve created. Kaede finally coughs and mutters lowly, “Um, if there really is no danger over what I found in Gonta’s lab, then do whatever you need to do with the poison, but don’t hide it, make some other plan. I’m going now.” She promptly leaves without waiting for Shuichi’s reply.

 

He says nothing except a non-committal, “Alright… that sounds like... the smart thing to do…” and nothing else. Not a single goodbye was uttered.

 

\---

 

Juggling secrets was a mistake, an obvious one in hindsight, and should’ve been obvious beforehand. He kicks himself in his head at least fifty times as he drags his feet back to Gonta’s lab. This is all his fault.

 

When he arrives at the light green double doors, he delays entering it by lazily examining the silhouette of bugs imprinted on them. Gonta is probably in there happily taking care of his bugs, blissfully unaware of the detective’s massive screw-up that will potentially ruin Gonta’s relationship with everyone. Surely they’d forgive Gonta more than himself, at least he hopes so, he deserves it way less. 

 

Deciding to finally get moving, he knocks on the doors. He knocks again louder after a minute, rationalizing that Gonta may not have heard him. Another minute passes. To make sure Gonta hasn’t simply left, he opens the door and peeks in. He’s not there. 

 

Oh… 

 

OH.

 

Of course Gonta would notice the poison is missing! It’s on Shuichi‘s person but Gonta doesn’t know that. What is he doing right now? Could he be looking for him? Shuichi should be searching for him as well, this needs to be cleared up immediately. He groans at the prospect of having to walk around searching aimlessly after just sprinting for his life. There’s no choice, however, so he turns to leave.

 

He half-jogs through the hallway, scanning around for either Gonta himself or somebody who can take him to him. He reaches a juncture and takes a right, left, then whatever direction, leading himself in circles. The more he travels around the academy, the more the situations starts weighing down on him. His mind wears down as his emotions well up to replace his cool facade. Every second that passes is a reminder that he has to find Gonta  _ now _ . What is he doing? His pace picks up. 

 

He spots his first person guarding her own secrets. “Maki!” She turns her head slightly. He hates how rough and uncool his voice sounds, but he doesn’t allow himself anytime to grimace over it. “Have you seen Gonta?”

 

Like a statue, she doesn’t move, almost as if she can’t see or hear Shuichi, but that illusion disperses when she utters a quiet, “...No.” 

 

Unhelpful. “A-alright. See you.” He cuts the exchange as much as he can and moves to continue his search. He expected more trouble, thinking maybe she already knew what he’s done, but that’s ridiculous.

 

“Hey~ Shuichi!” Someone who most would consider the complete opposite of helpful is the next person he unfortunately sees on the second floor. Shuichi knows that any time with Kokichi would prove pointless, so he runs right past him. “Hey! You’re being real mean!” he whines. Shuichi doubts that he will help him, even if he does know where Gonta is, but he trusts Kokichi to torment him about it later if he doesn’t. He can deal with those consequences when they come, so he moves on to the basement floor. 

 

He finds nothing in any of the rooms, so he heads back up. He makes it two steps up the stairs when he hears from above him, “Oh, Shuichi, what are you in such a hurry for?” Looking up he sees long locks of blue hair cascade over the railing. 

 

He asks, “Have you seen Gonta around? I’m looking for him.”

 

“Gonta?” Tsumugi glides down the flight of stairs above him to the platform connecting hers to his. “I was actually just in the library when Gonta ran in. He scared me quite a bit! He was really freaked out for some reason. He left soon after, though. I’m worried for him.”

 

“Well, do you know where he went?” 

 

To his annoyment, instead of answering his question, she inquires, “Oh? Do you know why Gonta was so scared?” She grows concerned, “Is something bad happening?”

 

This conversation is going nowhere. He is being a bit unfair to her, he knows that. Tsumugi’s inquiries are a result of her caring. Still, it doesn’t take back the edge in his voice. “Sorry, but this isn’t something I should be talking about with anybody other than Gonta right now. You really don’t have to worry at all.”

 

She is unconvinced, but lets it go to his infinite relief, “Oh, alright. Well, luckily, I did see him,” Shuichi perks up, “I was just in the library and Gonta came in, looking really frantic. He gave me quite the scare! After telling me to look out, he went to the gym or the pool, I think.”

 

Finally. “Thanks, Tsumugi. I’ll see you later.”

 

“Oh, um,“ she waves a wary arm at his suddenly retreating form and bids, “see you.”

 

He jogs at a clumsy and uneven pace to the gymnasium. Peering in, he finds no one, so repeats the process to the pool’s entrance. As he nears his destination, a large figure rushes from out of the pool area. The figure runs a few steps past Shuichi when he calls out, “Gonta!”

 

The larger boy grinds to a halt. He whips his head around, staggers at the sight of him, then shouts, “Shuichi!”

 

Relieved to see him, Shuichi begins, “Tsumugi told me you might be here, I’m glad to have found you.”

 

“Sh-Shuichi! Is terrible! The pois-”

 

Shuichi abruptly interrupts the other’s panicked exclamation, “Gonta! Shhh!”

 

“on….” he finishes in a soft whisper. Just as frantic, he whisper-screams, “Gonta mess up! Poison is gone and…” he starts tearing up “friend might die!”

 

Hurrying to put an end to the hysteria, he gets straight to the point. In a firm tone, he starts, “Gonta, listen to me. You see...” then trails off, realizing he didn’t prepare for this at all. Can he really just admit to being the cause of anguish for him and Kaede? No pre-made mental script will save him here. His anxiety returns. This could end the exact same way as his last conversation with Kaede. Dammit. He tries to at least mutter some sort of explanation, “I have the poison right here, no one is in danger.” Not quite an explanation, but whatever, anything end Gonta’s hysteria. He retrieves from his inner coat pocket the all-too familiar bottle. “See? There’s no need to worry.”

 

Gonta stares. He only stares, calmed significantly but his brows furrow, in concern or betrayal Shuichi can’t tell. “Gonta... so sorry.” That comment is unsurprising to Shuichi. He knows how much Gonta tries to be responsible for all of their well-being. “Gonta put everyone in danger because he’s stupid.”

 

“What? No, not at all, I was the one who decided to keep it a secret and made you promise.”

 

“No, Gonta should not have agreed to this in first place.” Shuichi looks to him in bewilderment. . “Gonta should have known it was bad idea, but Gonta say nothing and wanted Shuichi to tell him what to do. Gonta responsible for himself, and shouldn’t have listened to Shuichi.”

 

“Um, ow?” What is he saying? Did he know along that something would happen?

 

Backtracking, he reiterates, “Gonta mean, he not should have put all of responsibility on Shuichi. He burden you… because, he is coward, and... Not a gentleman at all!” He nearly screams the last part, startling Shuichi. 

 

This puts Shuichi in a very odd bind. His personal goals of apologizing and getting at least a little bit of forgiveness from someone he expects to be too kind, if not understanding, to not to, is being blown apart. Selfish… but he can’t muster enough restraint. How can he apologize now? Gonta will not let him be responsible, and is putting the burden on his own shoulders again. He speaks through his teeth, “No, Gonta, you don’t have to feel bad about that. I should be the one apologizing.”

 

Gonta, frustratingly, does not accept his apology, “No, Gonta shoulda been smarter.”

 

Shuichi rejects Gonta’s apology in turn, irritated beyond measure. “Gonta, please, I should be taking responsibility. Nobody expects much from you-” He flinches. No, he didn’t mean to say that. 

 

Gonta is… shocked. Dejected. His wide eyes stare slack-jawed at the other. He knew that his uselessness was at least implied, but to actually hear it makes it seem like the imaginary rain cloud over his head became real with just a few magic words. Not only that, Shuichi is the ultimate detective, a way better talent than entomology, useless within the static, lifeless walls of the academy. The statement must be true. Unfortunately, his stupid emotions won’t just let him accept that and clings to a flimsy hope that it’s false. “You not really mean that, do you?”

 

“...I-” don’t care anymore. “No. I don’t. It’s alright because nobody got hurt, okay?” His voice is so hollow. He really is exhausted. He honestly cannot muster enough sympathy for the other. At the moment he can’t pinpoint if it is solely due to exhaustion or resentment. He is mildly frustrated that Gonta won’t just… accept his apology. He wanted this to be simple: he takes the blame, Gonta says it’s fine, that’s that. Of course it doesn’t go that way, though; Gonta is just as emotionally needy as he is. Still, he’ll act as if that’s not the case. “You don’t have to run around and scare everyone, alright? You freaked out Tsumugi at the library.”

 

“Sorry…” He says nothing else on that topic… except, “Um, but Gonta never went to library?”

 

Shuichi sighs. Of course Gonta still feels guilty. Odd he isn’t being honest, though. “Gonta, I said it’s okay. No one is blaming you.”

 

With a frown, he relents, “..Okay.”

 

Shuichi drags his hands down his face, both to relieve some frustration and to rub away the tiredness in his eyes. With wider eyes, he looks up to the flaming orange sky. The dusk’s eerie light looms over them, as if demanding them to get a move on, to stop meddling in something useless and wait for tomorrow to deal with it. Shuichi is over-analyzing it due to his desire to finally end this stressful day. With this justification, he takes the chance to leave. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He doesn’t wait for a reciprocating farewell, hoping his bland comment was sufficient enough to cut the ties between him and the conversation. He hears something feint from Gonta, but can’t make it out. He doesn’t bother to.

 

\---

 

Gonta is abandoned by the pool entrance, wondering what he should do now that there is no danger. He is glad that what he thought was happening is not the case at all… but… there’s still poison. Not only that, it was practically proven that he is useless. If his friends are in danger, is there really nothing he can do besides run between them and the Exisals? Is it true that all he’s good for is his body, and not his efforts nor talent? He still doesn’t know. He doesn’t want to ask anyone what to do, that’s something he should know himself. 

 

Does he have no choice? Maybe he can do nothing, instead. That way he’s not in anyone’s way, at least.

 

\---

 

Staring at the ceiling above his bed is no way to rest. Neither is it a way to forget about his problems. Instead, his mind wanders to the worst possible thoughts: imaginary scenarios. His mind paints vivid images on the blank canvas above him, all of them undesirable. He sees himself as the subject of scornful glares from his classmates. He sees Kaede yelling at him, explaining just how much of he forsake her trust. Worst of all, he sees them all dead. One of them poisoned, the rest, executed.

 

…

 

Oh, fuck, that’s right. The poisons are still out. He feels one of them in his inner pocket. He lets out an ugly groan. What does he do about them, now? Kaede has no doubt told everyone by now. Should he just… put them all back? If everyone knows about them in the first place, then they should be in a place that everyone knows. If a murder does happen, he’ll be able to figure out which one was taken in an instant, at least. He reluctantly rolls himself out of bed.

 

It’s dark out, now, meaning almost everybody should be at the dining hall for dinner. He shudders at the thought of joining them. He’ll skip. At least no one will bother him while he does so. If he does get hungry, he can just grab whatever from the kitchen or the warehouse. 

 

This is how he spends his entire evening, mindlessly walking back and forth between the two labs. Gonta must be in his dorm or hanging out with another student if he’s not in his lab, so he doesn’t have Gonta to help him like he did before. No, he abandoned one of the last supports he had in this hellhole. 

 

Should he just deal with this tomorrow? He needs to make at least another trip, and that by itself doesn’t sound bad but if he doesn’t want to do more he has to balance a ton of them in his arms and climb two flights of stairs. He sucks it up and completes his task.

 

After, he finally allows himself to return to his dorm and collapse onto his bed.

 

\---

 

“Ding-dong, bing-bong,” The announcement plays. “Rise and shine, ursine!” 

 

Shuichi doesn’t find a need to listen to the cubs. They hardly ever say anything important during the five minutes of time they waste out of everybody’s day. Instead, he prepares for the day like he normally does. Clad in his uniform and familiar hat, he takes a look at himself in the bathroom mirror. He splashes some water onto his face to wash out any last bit of sleep from his eyes then looks at himself again. He looks... like he always does.

 

He expected when falling to sleep last night that he’d feel just as awful as yesterday. Well, he still feels the same guilt, but there is no exhaustion anymore. Now without it, his desire to make things right reemerges. This situation is not an impossible labyrinth that not even the Ultimate Detective can get out of. Instead it’s a dark tunnel, and just because he couldn’t see the light at the end of it doesn’t mean it’s not there. If something like this happened before he met Kaede and Gonta, he probably would have never had the strength to try and fix it. Kaede’s never-lasting optimism encourages him, even when she herself seems down for the count. She lifted him up the entire time the two of them were here. Maybe he should return the favor. Gonta, too, has supported him the best he could. He’s someone who feels his talent is useless, just like him, yet he still tries his hardest for everyone. Shuichi needs to return that favor, too.

 

He rides this high of positive energy to Kaede’s door. When she doesn’t answer, he simply looks for her somewhere else. The kitchen is sparsely inhabited, but not by the pianist. No one pays much mind to him, which he finds a bit odd, but he doesn’t pay much mind to it, a little relieved by the lack of hostility. 

 

He finds her in the piano room. She doesn’t notice him enter, even with no music playing. She’s just sitting on the stool in front of the piano, fingers hovering above the keys. Her eyes are blank and don’t register the correlation between the keys’ placements and their notes. She’s tired.

 

He gently calls out to her, “Kaede.” Her head snaps to his direction with an expression of surprise, but soon after the tired look returns. He knows what Kaede must be feeling, he felt it just last night. He starts, “I want to apologize about yesterday.” Kaede groans.

 

“No, Shuichi, it’s fine, I get it.” Her response is a clear result of her fatigue. She doesn’t want him here, but Shuichi won’t leave her alone that easily. She never gave up on him, after all. 

 

His tone is soft and genuine, “It’s not fine. I unjustly made the decision to hide the poisons from everyone. I should have been honest to you all, especially to you.” 

 

“It’s fine.” Shuichi smiles. He knew that an apology wouldn’t get Kaede jumping for joy. Still, he’s glad to have done it. “Now, I’m going to apologize to everyone at breakfast. And, um,” he hides an embarrassed blush under his cap, “Can you be there for me when I do? I think it’d really help to have both of us there to clear things up.”

 

“It’s fine, they don’t know about it anyway.”

 

“I thought you did that yesterday?”

 

“...” Kaede’s hesitance tells a lot more than her short responses. She’s tired, regretful ,and scared all rolled into one, but she’s trying her hardest to trudge through. “Shuichi, it’s not just that I wanted an apology from you.”

 

Quick to try and support her, he asks, “What do you need?”

 

Frustrated, Kaede snaps, “No, I don’t expect anything from you!” He backpedals, taken aback by the exclamation. Kaede flinches at his reaction, clearly regretful of her word choice. She gets up from her stool to explain, “I mean, you don’t  _ have _ to apologize. I-I’m the one who should be apologizing!”

 

“No, I-”

 

“I was a hypocrite!” She doesn’t let Shuichi retort and continues, “You and Gonta weren’t the only one keeping secrets. I made you look at the motive videos with me and made you keep it a secret. I completely understand what was going through your head when you found the poisons… I shouldn’t be the one to yell at you for it like I did yesterday just because you were trying to help.” Kaede abandons her attempt to stay calm and lets her frown make ugly wrinkles on her face with tears falling freely over them. Her voice is weak when she utters, “I… I’m sorry, Shuichi. I’m sorry for yesterday.”

 

Shuichi is close to crying, too. The entire situation and the contagious sorrow from Kaede’s remorse threatens to tear his heart out. “I understand, Kaede. I don’t blame you at all.” Kaede merely sniffles in response. She plops back down onto the stool and rests her head on the piano keys, uncaring of the jarring noise it produces. Shuchi slides next to her and puts a hand to her shoulder. They don’t speak as they recharge the energy they drained in arguing and apologizing.

 

Shuichi just now realizes during the necessary silence the parallel between his matter with Kaede and the one with Gonta. He winces at yesterday’s memory. He made the same mistake of taking away the other’s desire to atone for their mistakes, selfishly trying to make it all about his own failures. He’ll have to find Gonta soon, probably after breakfast, since he’s currently occupied crying with his friend over a piano. The two friends stay in there until halfway through breakfast before they’re finally ready to get up, aching from maintaining their awkward positions for so long. 

 

“So... “ Kaede starts, “I guess we should figure out what to do now?”

 

“Yeah…” Shuichi confirms, “I should apolo-talk to Gonta, too.”

 

“Oh, right… Kaede says awkwardly. They have the poison, their classmates, and Gonta to think about, now that they’re cooperating together again. The issue is not only about Shuichi and Gonta’s secret about the poison, it’s also about Kaede’s secret: the motive videos. “Um, I need to talk to Gonta, too. He deserves to know, you know...”

 

He smiles, “We can do that right now, if you’re up for it.”

 

“Yeah, let’s go do that!” 

 

With new energy, the friends head out of the lab. Just as they take a step out of the door, an announcement plays,

 

“Ding-dong, bing-bong.”

 

Both look to each other in confusion, wondering what other than the morning and night announcements could it be. They turn back into the lab to view the monitor just as Monokuma’s face flashes on screen. 

 

“A body has been discovered! Everyone, please gather in the gymnasium.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is my overuse of ellipses charming? ;)
> 
> Also, the updates will not be as frequent as before, but the lengths will be the same.


	13. Shuichi Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The investigation begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so like, I have not been implementing the motives quite as much as I should but wtv! I'll do it next part, I tell myself. Pbfbfhfbthhbt

The pair sprint together down flights of stairs and through the halls. As they rush by the front entrance, they see a glimpse of blonde hair disappear into the hall where the gym lays. They follow suit, not dropping their momentum even as their bodies hit the gym doors, weak against their assault. Shuichi scans the room, eyes mainly landing on the students already present. Closest to them is Miu, frozen on the spot, Tsumugi right by her side in a similar state. Further into the gym, Rantaro, Kiibo, and Ryoma gaze at the stage. Shuichi stops paying any mind to the other students, instead looking straight ahead. Up on the stage for all to see is...

 

Gonta.

 

Bloody, cold, unmoving, limp, _lifeless_.

 

Shuichi stops cold in his tracks, letting Kaede run ahead of him. That’s...Gonta… He can’t register anything else, not Kirumi, who is directly to the side of Gonta, tending to the crime scene, not even Kaede as she turns around after realizing Shuichi is not by her side. More people enter. He only faintly recognizes the noise of Tenko’s sputtering shouts and Kaito’s yelling as he enters a state of denial.

 

He was just with Gonta yesterday… How could this have happened? Th-this is his fault, isn’t it? At the very least it’s karma for keeping secrets and going behind everyone’s backs, looking at motive videos, hiding poison, everything. His heart turns in on itself painfully and he futilely grasps his chest in his hand. He deserves this hurt, he deserves it all, but why did Gonta have to go? Why now, of all times, right after they parted on awful terms and just before he could try to mend it? It’s not until he hears the telltale phrase of their captors does he jolt back to the present.

 

“Rise and shine, ursine!” Their cheerfulness contrasts too sharply with Shuichi’s current state, making them sound even more aggravating than they usually do.

 

Monokuma, all too happily, begins his spiel, “Well, well, well, will you look at this! I’m so happy. I was starting to get real tired of waiting, you know!” The cheerful tone grates against his nerves. How could that prick be happy that they lost someone?

 

“Oh no, it’s so bloody…. kerblehblehbleh!”

 

“Darn, you’se all sure took your time, din’cha? Don’cha knows time is money?”

 

Expectedly, anger courses through the student body and they show their ire clearly. Kaito shouts, “We don’t care about your damn schedule!”

 

“Yeah, and what happened here?” interrogates Tenko.

 

Monokuma flippantly answers, “It’s the start of the killing game, what else would it be?” The students’ retorts end there. They accepted deep down that it wasn’t impossible for one of them to stab their backs.

 

Ryoma removes his cap and puts it to his chest to show respect for the dead. He says, “Regardless of how he passed, he is no longer with us.”

 

Angie adds, “Let us pray for the safe passage of his soul to the afterlife,” and puts her hands together.

 

Tsumugi says nothing but nods along and whimpers quietly.

 

“Ah-hem, hello? Are good now? Great!” Monokuma begins business, “Alright! Now, as you all know, you have a limited amount of time to investigate, then we move on to the class trial! So, to get you all started, I am proud to present the Monokuma File!” The Monocubs happily show off their tablets at their father’s cue.

 

The red bear waddles in front of Shuichi, nearly tripping its own scarf as it presents him a tablet. He snatches it and tucks it under his arm. He doesn’t want to look at it and he definitely doesn’t want to play the stupid game. He sees Kaede take hers from the green one. She is looking at it hesitantly, as is everybody else.

 

“I’ll leave you all to your investigating. See you at the trial!” The family of bears then disappear, how and where no one knows or cares.

 

As if suddenly remembering her friend’s sorrow, Kaede turns back to Shuichi. She puts a hand to his shoulder and leans in close to talk quietly to him, “Shuichi, let’s step outside for a second, alright?”

 

Shuichi hasn’t realized until now the pricking feeling in his eyes or the irregularity of his breathing. He must look ready to break at any moment, so no wonder Kaede wants to herd him away from the scene. He feels her hand’s grip on his shoulder tighten and start pulling him towards the door. He resists and snaps, “N-no! It’s alright.” He shrugs her hand off. “We have a limited amount of time,” his voice cracks at that second. He’s embarrassed about it, but Kaede kindly makes no protest against his choice to stay. He takes a few moments more to shove down the feeling of knives in his chest. He feels bad for blowing her off, so says, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t treat you like that.”

 

“It’s okay, I get that this is really stressful, so no hard feelings, alright?” Shuichi can’t determine if she completely means it, seeing no sign of mirth on her features, so he nods.

 

To distract himself from the tension, he starts taking in his surroundings. Averting his gaze from the stage, he looks to his fellow students. All of them are here, each sporting a look of unease in varying degrees. Miu hasn’t moved much from her spot by the door. Rantaro is in deep conversation with two others Ryoma and Kiibo, both of whom looking a bit skeptical to what he is saying. Tsumugi is wandering around the gym, switching her attention from one thing to another, from one person to someone else. He hears Himiko say, “We only have so much time to look around, right? What a pain…”

 

“Hey, Shuichi,” Kaede says, “Should we start investigating? It looks everybody has already started.”

 

“Yeah... sure.”

 

He takes the monokuma file from under his arm. He’s glad that he’s reading it before having to investigate the body. He’s nowhere ready to confront his… failure.

 

\--Monokuma File--

The victim is Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist. He was discovered at 8:30 in the morning at the gymnasium. Heavy knife wounds ar present on his calves and various other areas and there are signs of heavy abuse on his knuckles and fingers.  His final cause of death is the inhalation of toxic gases.

 

Both Kaede and Shuichi stare in shock at the last part of file: toxic gases. They both know that Shuichi kept the poison bottles a secret along with Gonta, and as far as they know, they still are. Shuichi reads over it again as if it more information will appear the longer he looks. Where is the time of death? What poisons killed him?

 

Truth Bullet: Monokuma File

It shows the cause of death and state of the body but no time of death nor what poisons were used to kill him.

 

The click-clack of shoes on vinyl declare Tsumugi’s wandering towards their direction with a sullen look on her face followed by Kaito, whose brows furrows in grievance. “Did you two read the file? It’s so brutal, poor Gonta…”

 

Kaede agrees immediately, “Right. Honestly, it’s so... _unnecessary_.” Odd word choice, but no one blames her for not being able to encapsulate the tragedy in one word.

 

Kaito groans in disgust, “Yeesh, whoever this guy is, they’re ruthless. When did they even get to the big guy, anyway? This morning? Last dinner?” It’s clear to Shuichi that he’s choosing his words more carefully than usual. He must not want to hurt anyone who’s grieving. A whole lot of good that does, Shuichi thinks, it’s like they don’t already know he’s dead.

 

Shuichi dispels those thoughts and asks, “What do you mean?”

 

“Don’t you remember? The gym is locked at night. We don’t know when the culprit… did any of this.”

 

Tsumugi pipes in, “Oh, that’s right! The academy regulations state that we are forbidden from entering the dining hall and gym at night.”

 

“That’s absolutely correct!” Monokuma announces as he appears suddenly to their side, startling Kaito greatly.

 

“What the hell, man!” he complains.

 

Monokuma ignores. “Academy Regulation number seven states that students are absolutely forbidden from entering certain areas during nighttime. If they did,” he pauses slightly before yelling dramatically, “the alarms will blaaare across the entire academy as the Exisals chase down the student who dared to break academy regulations! The punishment? Death!”

 

Tsumugi nervously responds, “Oh, is that so?”

 

“I’ve always believed the more brutal the punishment, the more it sticks throughout their very short five seconds of life! Baa-hahaha!”

 

Truth Bullet: Ultimate Academy Regulation #7

"Nighttime" is officially designated as the hours between 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. During this time, the dining hall and gymnasium are closed.

 

Kaito recovers from his surprise and comments, “That narrows down when the crime was committed, at least.”

 

“Well, other than that, I think we can plainly see that the oddest thing about this is the toxic gas,” says Tsumugi, “Where did the culprit manage to get something like that?”

 

At that, Kaede worriedly looks to Shuichi and sees his lips twitch ever so slightly into a frown. He’s not speaking up, so Kaede answers, “If we look around, we might find it. It could even be in the gym.”

 

Kaito’s eyes widen in realization, “Wait, could the toxic gas still be in here? I’m, uh, gonna step outside. For fresh air, y’know?.”

 

“Worry not, my dear student! Before you all stampeded in here, all dangerous biohazards were removed so you could all investigate without worry. It would be no good to lose all of the players at the first murder, after all!”

 

“All offense, Monokuma, but I’m not trusting a word you say.” He hurries to the exit.

 

“Hmph, how rude! You don’t need me, huh?” Monokuma cries “Well, I don’t need you!” then vanishes.

 

“Oh, well…” Tsumugi laughs awkwardly, “I know this will sound silly, but I’m plain hungry. I’m gonna need some extra salty chips and a protein bar, then I’ll be investigating like crazy in no time!” She then follows Kaito out.

 

With those two gone, Kaede hesitantly says, “Hey, um, just so you know, I’m counting on you, Shuichi. You’re a wonderful detective, and, if anybody can figure this out, it’s you… and, I’m sorry.”

 

His confusion pulls him out of his obsessive observation, “Huh?”

 

“This is the result of the motives, isn’t it?” She lowers her gaze to her feet, “This is my fault…I should have been honest with everybody.”

 

Shuichi just realizes that Kaede must be devastated, too. She was friends with Gonta, and she also kept secrets about him, so she must be feeling the same as him. He puts a hand to Kaede’s shoulder, mirroring her previous gesture. “N-no, that’s wrong!” She looks back up to him, “This isn’t anybody’s fault except the culprit’s. We’re going to get to the bottom of this, no matter what.” That’s right. He has a task that possibly only he can solve. Kaede is relying on him, and Gonta is, too, from beyond the grave. This is what he needs to do right now, and nothing else should get in the way until it’s over. He can make it to Gonta that way, right? Then everything will be fine… he won’t feel the knives in his heart anymore. This is his mission.

 

The detective decides to he needs to begin his investigation for evidence right away. He pushes up the bill of his hat, allowing his eyes to point straight to the stage. He says coldly, “We need to make sure what the file is telling us is the truth.”

 

Kaede, a bit off-put by the coldness of his tone, says, “Right, but, are you sure you’re ready to do that? You don’t have to force yourself...”

 

“I’d rather observe the body myself.” Kaede doesn’t comment on his referring to Gonta as “the body”. She follows Shuichi to the stage where Korekiyo, Himiko, and Maki already are. Himiko is lingering five steps away from where the blood pools. Maki is unbothered by the blood, and doesn’t hesitate to crouch down so close to the body. Korekiyo is right by her in a similar position.

 

Shuichi joins them, crouching down across from them. Up close, the state of Gont-the corpse is far more tragic. He lays on his back, hands weakly covering his mouth. His eyes are wide open in frozen shock, staring straight up at nothing. The skin is painted a morbid bluish tone, framed by dirty matted green hair. Finally, pink blossoms out of his body from his chest down to his calves, just like the monokuma file stated. While he observes with unnatural and mechanical focus, Kaede converses with the other investigators.

 

“Have you guys found anything?”

 

“I found the knife!” Himiko announces. She points straight to the bloody knife lying by Gonta’s feet, “Is that helpful?”

 

Maki states bluntly, “Yes, it is.” She rises up from her crouched position to level her gaze to Kaede’s. “However the culprit took down Gonta, he didn’t put up too much of a fight.”

 

Kaede asks, “How do you know?”

 

“The blood is too localized to the same spot. He stayed put as he died.”

 

Korekiyo interjects, “But what of his fingers?” He lifts a hand up from its position over his mouth to show everybody the rough and bloodied knuckles. “Doesn’t it look to you as though he resisted to the end?”

 

Maki argues, “If that were the case, his strength doesn’t match his looks.”

 

“Is that so?” Korekiyo asks sarcastically, “Then the culprit must be particularly cruel in going this far to kill a weak opponent.”

 

She bite back, “That, or they’re incompetent.”

 

Kaede sighs, “Oh, so that’s another mystery we have to solve, huh?”

 

Truth Bullet: No signs of struggle

Despite the severity of the wounds, there are no signs of struggle indicating a fight besides his bloodied hands.

 

Shuichi scrutinizes every wound, looking back to the monokuma file occasionally to make sure its information matches up. What he heard from the others makes what was written in the monokuma file suspicious. It doesn’t explain the significance of the knife wounds at all. He looks to the knife, a plain kitchen knife, upon closer inspection. He makes a motion to pick it up with the intent of lining it up with the wounds to see if their dimensions match, but Maki interrupts him.

 

“The knife matches exactly, I checked.”  

 

“I’d like to make sure,” he responds curtly. He snatches the knife, not caring about getting blood on his hands or fingerprints on the knife. They don’t have fingerprinting kits anyway. Maki says nothing in response to his rudeness.

 

Kaede looks in concern as Shuichi meticulously inspects the body. She finds it… unnatural how easy it is for Shuichi to be so close to the corpse of a friend. Not only that, his mannerisms are completely unlike how they usually are. He’s always been to the point, but around a crime scene, this is excessive. She can tell, despite how calm Shuichi may look, that he’s trying to smother his hurt under cold calculation. She doesn’t know what she can do to help him, or if she even should at the moment.

 

Shuichi finishes his investigation of the knife and places the knife back to where he took it from. Overall, he’s pretty confident in what and how he got these wounds, except for the hands. What had Gonta done to cause that? He picks up a hand to scrutinize like Korekiyo had done, except this time something unexpected happens. While in his hands, the dead fingers twitch, coiling up to a fist than stretching open in jerky movements. With a yelp, Shuichi drops the hand and crawls back. Everybody else takes a step back as well as Gonta’s entire arm begins convulsing.

 

Himiko muffles her scream with her hands when an airy groan escapes his exposed lips. She whispers in shock, “Is he a zombie? Is there a necromancer afoot?”

 

Korekiyo, calm as ever, answers, “Worry not, Himiko, post-mortem convulsions are a common phenomenon, as well as groaning.”

 

“Nyeh…” The answer does nothing to ease her. Face blue, Himiko walks away from the scene.

 

Shuichi is not faring much better. He clumsily gets back on to his feet assisted by Kaede. He already knew, of course, the stages of decomposition, but that didn’t prevent him from hoping with all his heart that the killing game didn’t really start. It really hurt, to have his hopes rise so quickly then destroyed just as quickly in less than a second.

 

With a steadying hand still on Shuichi’s shoulder, she suggests, “Why don’t you move on to investigate the rest of the crime scene? I’ll tell you if we find anything new, okay?” She tightens her grip on his shoulder when he tried to move away from it. She knows that Shuichi is pushing himself too hard and is convinced that he can handle it, but she knows her friend better than he thinks. One more squeeze on his shoulder gets her point across, and he nods.

 

“Alright, I’ll do that.”

 

Truth Bullet: Bloody Kitchen Knife

A kitchen knife covered in recently-shed blood lays by Gonta’s body. It is speculated to have come from the kitchen and os definitely the weapon used to wound Gonta.

 

Truth Bullet: Gonta’s Body

He was covering his mouth with his hands when he died. Not only are there knife wounds, Gonta’s skin has turned into a morbid bluish tone and his corpse has convulsed postmortem.

 

He looks around the gym, analyzing for something out of place. Before he does, some arguing grabs his attention. In a huddle, Kiibo, Rantaro, and Ryoma are in a heated discussion. If Shuichi recalls, they’ve been at it since Monokuma left. He hears a “So the culprit tampered with the scene _after_ you already saw it?” from Kiibo. Immediately interested, Shuichi walks over to join them.

 

“What’s that I heard about the crime scene changing?”

 

Kiibo answers, “Hello, Shuichi. The body discovery announcement went off after Rantaro summoned Ryoma and I to the gym.”

 

“Before that, however,” Rantaro cuts in, “I needed to get the ring I dropped at the gym earlier. When I saw Gonta’s body on the stage, I went straight to him to see if he was okay. He was dead, but there were absolutely no bloody wounds on him. I only saw his blue skin when I bolted out to get someone.”

 

“And when _we_ got there,” Ryoma says, “we saw Gonta’s bloody body and the murder weapon.”

 

Rantaro sighs, “These two don’t believe me, though.”

 

“That’s because the time frame seems a bit too narrow for anyone to tamper with the evidence,” Kiibo claims.

 

Shuichi knows fully well why Kiibo and Ryoma find him suspicious. There is every possibility that Rantaro is the culprit and is trying to mislead everyone. Unless there is another witness, Rantaro’s claim can’t be confirmed. Still, if the culprit did tamper with evidence, this would be too vital to ignore. Unable to ignore that possibility, Shuichi puts his faith in Rantaro’s testimony. “What time did you first find the body, Rantaro?”

 

“Oh, well,” he puts his hands on his hip and closes his eyes, deep in thought, “It was before I went to breakfast, which is usually eight-thirty, so I’d say around eight-twenty five?”

 

“That gives the culprit only a five-minute time frame, before the announcement went off at eight-thirty… Was anything else out of place besides the body?”

 

Rantaro shrugs, “I didn't notice anything else. I wouldn’t be surprised if the culprit tampered with more, though.”

 

Truth Bullet: Rantaro’s Testimony

He claims that when he first discovered the body at 8: 25, there was no knife and no wounds. It was only after he retrieved Ryoma and Kiibo at 8:30 that the wounds appeared.

 

“Is that a liiiie~ I hear?” Kokichi worms his way into their group, to the majority’s annoyance. “Anyway, what are you guys doing, just lounging around? We have a murder to investigate!”

 

Kiibo states, “Excuse you, but we were exchanging testimonies. What have _you_ been investigating?”

 

Kokichi dramatically leans back and puts his hands behind his head. “You know, kicking around stuff for fun, like janked-up metal scrap.”

 

The comment exasperates the robot. “That’s not investigating!”

 

No longer seeing anymore point to sticking around, Shuichi walks away as they argue.

 

“Atua is guiding me……….. That way!” Angie points a finger to a pile of gym equipment. Her audience, Tenko and Miu, squint their eyes at the pile consisting of a barbell and stacks of barbell weights. Angie walks to it and points out its oddities. “The structure, random yet deliberate,” she says mysteriously. “Tenko, help Angie take this apart, will you? You have strong arms.”

 

Miu cackles, “Yeah, probably ‘cuz she jerks off so much!”

 

Tenko’s face turns red. “T-that’s-” She grits her teeth and assists Angie.

 

Just as the two discover something strange, Shuichi walks by. He is just in time to hear Tenko say, “Woah, what is this?” She snatches her hand away from the hidden items and urges Angie to do the same.

 

Shuichi runs over and sees the weights, something he’s never seen in the gym before, disassembled to reveal a torch. When he gets close enough, he spots two bottles and his breath stops. Those are poison, and they’re empty. His mind races with the implications they present. When were they taken? When were they _used_? He asks the girls, “What did you three find here?”

 

“Hmm, let’s see, a red torch, poison, and a glass cup!” Angie cheers. Reassessing the poile, Shuichi sees she is telling the truth. In one stack, a glass cup rests neatly in the lined-up center holes, the rim preventing it from falling through to the floor. The same stack is supported by two other stacks, allowing for just enough room for the torch’s nozzle to poke through to under the glass. Finally, among the scattered weights sit two perfectly empty bottles of poison, almost definitely from his lab.

 

Miu responds to Angie, “No shit, sherlock number 2. Anyway, that’s a _propane_ torch.” She walks over to pick up the torch. She weighs it in her hands, shakes it, and even peers down the bent nozzle. “It’s pretty new, but it’s already been completely used up.”

 

That’s important evidence. “How long does it last? And how long does it burn?”

 

Miu, pleased with herself for being relied upon, answers, “Well, it _should_ last an hour if it was burning constantly at, let’s say around five-thousand degrees fahrenheit?” Shuichi jumps back at that information. “Buuut that’s not accounting for a bunch of shit. I’d estimate the flame’s about two-thousand degrees at most. Although, I have no idea why someone would need that much gasoline… unless they dumped it out to slick themselves up for some-”

 

“Okay, so, what in the world are these?” Tenko asks, keeping her distance from and pointing at the poison.

 

Shuichi knows he’ll have to explain himself at some point, but now’s not the time. “The culprit got their hands on poison and used it somehow.” He grabs the bottles and observes them, unworried about the toxins because Monokuma claims he removed them. The labels print, “Sulfuryl Fluoride” and “Isoflurane”. If he recalls correctly, the combined symptoms of these are Shock, drowsiness, weakness, shaking, convulsions, and muscle twitching. He’ll have to double-check in his lab to make sure he’s not missing anything, along with figure out if these really came from his lab.

 

“Hmmm,” Angie hums. She follows Shuichi’s example and picks up the glass without worry to inspect the bottom. “It is perfectly perfect!”

 

“This barbel sure isn’t,” Tenko comments. The naked barbell is bent out of shape and so worn-down looking that it’s out of place among the pristine weights it’s supposed to go with. “Look at these,” She casually picks up the barbell to point to its flaws. “Right in the middle, it bends this way, see? But in the opposite direction there are two indentations.”

 

“What the hell could have done that?” Miu squawks.

 

“Angie predicts.... Nothing! It looks virtually impossible!”

 

“...” Tenko and Miu say nothing.

 

There doesn’t seem to be anything new Shuichi can find, so he catalogues the new evidence in his monopad.

 

Truth Bullet: Propane Torch

An empty propane torch was hidden under a stack of weights, nozzle pointed up. It is capable of burning a flame as hot as five-thousand degrees fahrenheit for over an hour.

 

Truth Bullet: Stack of Weights

A pile of barbell weights. They conceal a propane torch, glass cup, and two bottles of poison. Some are stacked to be perfectly aligned.

 

Truth Bullet: Glass Cup

A simple and intact tall glass cup. It will melt at 2800 degrees °F. The propane torch’s nozzle is right under it.

 

Truth Bullet: Poison Bottles

Two bottles labeled Sulfuryl Fluoride and Isoflurane were found completely empty in the gym. The symptoms of poisoning are: Shock, drowsiness, weakness, shaking, convulsions, and muscle twitching.

 

Truth Bullet: Barbell

A beat-up barbell out of place among the weights. It bends in the middle and there are two indentations, a few inches apart, on the opposite side.

 

“I think that’s all we can find here,” Tenko comments.

 

“Mmhmm!” Angie turns to Shuichi. “We are counting on the Ultimate Detectie to make use of what we have found.”

 

“Definitely,” he replies curtly. Her comment only reaffirmed what he already knew. His only purpose is to solve this murder, regardless of what truth he encounters. Deep down, however, he is scared, but smothers that feeling down. He needs to investigate the next location.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This mystery will be good guys.... maybe, idk.
> 
> I don't think I'm characterizing Shuichi very well. I'm trying to make him go through like, the five stages of grief, where the desire to put the mystery before his feelings is a type of bargaining, an easy way out of dealing with his emotions.
> 
> Welp.


	14. Shuichi Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of the investigation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I kept you all waiting! ;_;

“Shuichi, wait up!” Kaede runs to Shuichi as he nears the exit, mildly peeved he was about to leave without her. “Let’s share what we’ve learned so far before going anywhere, okay?” Only a nod answers her. “Nothing new was found around the body, but Kiyo and Maki speculate that the poison used to kill Gonta was strychnine. Apparently, it’s _really_ lethal, and used a lot as a pesticide? There are other symptoms that they haven’t found an explanation for, though.”

 

“That can’t be right... Here, look at this,” he retrieves the poisons from his jacket, “These were by an odd setup I believe the culprit implemented. Neither of these are strychnine, however.”

 

Seeing the familiar bottles, Kaede gasps, “Woah, when did the culprit get those?”

 

Sighing, he puts them back in his jacket pocket. “I don’t know. I’m going to my lab to make sure they were taken from there specifically. I’m also going to Gonta’s lab… just in case.”

 

Kaede notices he doesn’t have a concrete reason for going to Gonta’s lab, so he must simply want to! “Lead the way!”

 

“You two aren’t leaving for snacks as well, are you?” Kirumi inquires by the door, “I am afraid I won’t be able to prepare enough snacks for you all before our time for investigating runs out.”

 

Shuichi says, “What? No, we’re going to investigate some other areas we believe are related to the case.”

 

Kirumi sighs in relief, “Oh, that is fortunate. I’ll let you go, then.”

 

“Hey, what about us?” Miu whines, gesturing to herself and Tsumugi.

 

“Yeah, and we can just make a snack ourselves, and you let Kaito go!”

 

Kirumi chastises, “Kaito, unlike you two, is actually investigating. He’s right outside observing the door.”

 

When Kaede and Shuichi first ran into the gym, they never noticed how odd the doors were. Thinking back, it yielded to them too easily than it should have. Looking at it now, the door’s anomalies are obvious. Large scratches and indentations riddle the door’s surface, along with numerous streaks of blood. Kaede marvels, “Woah, what could have caused that?”

 

Shuichi scrutinizes the surface. He swipes a finger across a crusted blood streak, causing some to flake off. “This is much older than the blood on Gonta…”

 

Truth Bullet: Gym Door

The doors to the gym’s surface is riddled with old blood, scratches, and dents on the side facing the gym. It still held against the assault and opens and closes easily.

 

He pushes open the door to observe the other side only to hit Kaito, previously kneeling face level with where the door handle was. “Ow! Uh, hey again, guys,” he greets, a bruise already forming on his face, “I was observin’ the doors, and, uh…” Shuichi ignores his awkward greeting to step outside and look at the door as a whole. Kaito stands up, “What do you reckon this means?”

 

Originally, the double doors proudly presented two matching bar handles. Now, the nails are just barely keeping the busted handles on the door. Both handles have been warped from a normal rectangle to an irregular pentagon, making the shape more convex. “I have some suspicions, but I can’t say for sure.”

 

“That’s all, huh?”

 

Truth Bullet: Gym Door Handles

Both handles are bar handles. Their shapes have been warped to a more concave shape than they should be and they are just barely hanging onto the door.

 

The doors suddenly swing back open as Kaede exits. Tsumugi and Miu attempt to escape with her, but Kirumi grabs them by their collars, “You two should be investigating.”

 

“Would it make you happy if we shared testimonies while we eat?” Tsumugi pleads.

 

Kirumi smirks, “I’d be happy to share testimonies right here with our fellow investigators.” Miu and Tsumugi groan.

 

“Oh, yeah,” Kaito agrees, “We’re gonna wanna figure out where everybody was last night if we want to find the culprit, right?” He points to Miu, “So far, you’re the most suspicious.”

 

Offended, Miu asks, “Wha-how?”

 

Kirumi says, “You were not present for dinner at all last night. Also, the fact that you are hungry means you haven’t had breakfast, either. What kept you so busy?”

 

Miu whines, “I-I was just in my lab ‘til past the night-time announcement… And it’s not my fault Rantaro found a body before half of us could even start breakfast…”

 

“Oh! When you left your lab last night, did you see anyone out past the announcement?” Kaede asks.

 

“No, not even when I went to the warehouse.”

 

Kaede asks, “What in the world were you doing in the warehouse in the middle of the night?”

 

Realizing how suspicious she sounded, she quickly clarifies, “It was just to find a snack! I thought there’d be chips or something!”

 

Truth Bullet: Miu’s Testimony

Miu claims she missed dinner because she spent the entirety of last evening in her lab. She left her lab at around midnight to go to the warehouse and saw no one else.

 

“Moving on,” Kirumi starts, “I noticed that at the crime scene, there was a kitchen knife. I would like to talk about that.”

 

“What about it?” Kaito asks.

 

“I believe it disappeared in the middle of dinner.” Shuichi grants her his full attention at the mention of its disappearance. “Before dinner, all of the knives had been accounted for, but this morning I discovered one of them was missing. I was the first one to enter the dining hall this morning, so I know for a fact it was taken yesterday.”

 

“Who was present at dinner last night?” Shuichi asks.

 

“Everyone except you, Kaede, and Miu. If it truly was taken during dinner, than I already have a list of suspects.”

 

“What? Who?” Tsumugi asks in surprise.

 

Kirumi points a glare right to her, “A few people entered the kitchen last night. Besides me, there was Korekiyo, Himiko, and you, Tsumugi.”

 

Truth Bullet: Kirumi’s Testimony

She claims that everybody besides Miu, Kaede, and Shuichi were present at dinner. Prior to that, all of the knives were accounted for. After dinner, one knife was missing. The only people who entered the kitchen besides her were Korekiyo, Tsumugi, and Himiko.

 

“So besides you, the only people who had access to the knives were those three…” Shuichi mutters.

 

Hopeful, Miu asks, “Does that mean I’m off the hook?”

 

“That is yet to be confirmed,” Kirumi answers.

 

Miu groans, “If you’re going to accuse me of murder, at least let me eat! Pleeease?”

 

“Don’t forget me!” Tsumugi says.

 

“You’re right,” Kirumi says. A glimmer of hope appears on their faces just before Kirumi says, “We can’t forget Tsumugi’s testimony, can we?”

 

“Oh, alright,” Tsumugi sighs, “Last night after dinner I went to my lab until just after the night time announcement when I went to my dorm. I saw nobody. _Now_ can we go?”

 

Truth Bullet: Tsumugi’s Testimony

She claims she was in her lab until after the nighttime announcement.

 

Finally, Kirumi relents, “Alright, you may go. I was never really stopping you two, anyway.”

 

The two gasp excitedly in unison and run for the kitchen immediately. Shuichi thinks he hears one of them shout “Freedom!” but he can’t be sure.

 

“I guess it’s my turn, right? Well, last night I stayed in the dining hall a bit longer ‘cuz I was still hungry. I went to my dorm right after, but,” Kaito looks uneasily to the busted gym doors, “for just a second, when I stepped out of the dining hall, I heard this really loud, far away banging. I think that it came from the gym. It stopped while the night time announcement was playing, I think.”

 

Truth Bullet: Kaito’s Testimony

He claims he briefly heard loud banging he suspects to have come from the gym until the night time announcement played.  
  


The horrifying implications hang over their heads. Shuichi’s hand begins to shake and he can’t stop it. Was it….?

 

Kirumi grabs his attention back, “Would you two mind sharing why you were not present last night?”

 

Unfortunately, Shuichi had not planned how to confess to everyone the literal rows upon rows of poison he possesses in his room, especially not after someone’s been killed.

 

Sensing his apprehension, Kaede goes first, “I was in my dorm all last evening, and this morning I was in my lab with Shuichi.”

 

Truth Bullet: Kaede’s Testimony

She claims she spent the entirety of dinner in her dorm. This morning, she was in her lab with Shuichi.

 

Now that it’s Shuichi’s turn, he says, “Well, I was in my lab last night.” While it’s not a lie, Kaede elbows him anyway. After uttering a grunt of pain, he musters up the energy to confess. At least it’s to only two people. “Gonta and I have been hiding something from you all, something I believe played a large role in his death.”

 

He sees Kirumi raise an eyebrow and Kaito tilt his head. “What kind of secret, man?”

 

He breathes in, “In my lab, there are a collection of poisons, accessible to anybody who enters my lab.” Kirumi is about to speak, but he cuts her off, “Gonta and I had hidden them in his lab until last night. I returned them all to my lab because...” He meets eyes with Kaede and she nods.

 

“I told him it’d be better if he told everyone.”

 

Truth Bullet: Shuichi’s Testimony

Shuichi claims he and Gonta hid the existence of poison from everyone until last night. He spent the evening relocating the poison from Gonta’s lab back to his. This morning, he was with Kaede in her lab.

 

Kirumi comments, “So that is why your lab seemed so empty.”

 

“Exactly. The poison is why Kaede and I are going to investigate my lab, see if they really did originate from there.”

 

“Very well then, do not let me delay you any further. You can explain yourself during the trial.”

 

Shuichi says his farewell to Kirumi and is about to leave when Kaito says to him, “Hey, Shuichi! Just know that I believe in your talent as the ultimate detective, so you do what you need to do and I’ll have your back, okay?” He gives a signature thumbs-up, “I won’t let anyone rag on you for trying to help everyone.”

 

The support was unexpected, so he only says, “T-thank you,” then leaves with Kaede. It stews on his mind a bit longer before his thoughts wander away from friendly memories to regret. Why can’t he just say what he wants to, what he needs to, and get it over with?

 

Out of the blue, he says, “You were right, Kaede.”

 

“Huh? About what?”

 

“Telling everyone about the poison, of course. If only I were more like you, we wouldn’t be in this situation…” He thinks back to his last meeting with Gonta. He buries his face in shame at himself, “It really is my fault.”

 

“...” They keep walking.

 

“Kaede? I’m really sorry.”

 

Kaede looks to be holding something back. She bites her bottom lip then says, “Shuichi, I don’t think just apologizing to me will help us, or you, for that matter.”

 

“H-huh?”

 

Kaede decides not to hold back, “Every time someone brings up the poison, you kind of… keep clinging to me for help, but you’re not really making an effort to do what you promised this morning.”

 

Right, he promised to confess, _before_ it became a problem. “It’s different now-”

 

She raises her voice, “No, it’s not! I’m keeping my promise to help you, but I can’t tell what you’re thinking and when you don’t tell me it makes me feel like I don’t matter enough to you.”

 

Flabbergasted by the confession, Shuichi is at a loss for how to respond,  “Really? I-I, should I…?” It’s overwhelming. He already feels a bit burdened by the responsibility of finding the culprit, he thought everything else should wait later. Although, that must be what Kaede is addressing. Should he do something?

 

“Look, you have a lot of support. Again, I don’t know what you’re thinking or feeling, but… just, Kaito told you he’d support you, and Kirumi was really understanding. I can’t...”

 

Kaede can’t…?

 

…

 

“I get it now.”

 

“Do you?”

 

“I’ve been making everything out to be a burden, but I wouldn’t acknowledge the help I’ve been given. I’ve only been unfairly dumping responsibility onto you every time. Thank you, Kaede, I’ll… I won’t be so adamant against accepting help anymore.”

 

Kaede closes her eyes, puts a hand to her chest, then inhales and exhales sharply. She opens her eyes back open and says, “Do you promise?”

 

“Promise.” He smiles, and she smiles back, just like before.

 

They make it to the doors of the lab, just the same as they remember. A single pull of the handle lets the duo peer inside to find a complete mess of scattered plastic pieces. They have to kick some out of their paths to even walk further in. The stacks of terrariums is no more than a toppled tower. As far as Shuichi can see, there is nothing else out of place. Who would come here just to knock over something?

 

Truth Bullet: Gonta’s Lab

The terrariums in Gonta’s lab are in complete disarray, the complete opposite of how Gonta usually keeps them.

 

Kaede asks, “What happened here? Did you do this?”

 

“Of course not, everything was neat the last time I was here.”

 

A voice that isn’t Kaede’s asks, “And when would that be?”

 

The two turn around to find Korekiyo and Angie making their way inside, careful of the junk in their way.

 

“Angie would like to know, as well!”

 

Awkwardly, he answers, “Uh, the last I was here was last evening. What are you two doing here?”

 

Korekiyo says, “We reached the conclusion that investigating the victim’s lab would yield favorable results.”

 

Angie pipes in, “That, and to pay our respects! I pray for Gonta’s safe passage to the afterlife.”

 

Shuichi takes another glance around the room. He sees nothing else out of place, which disappoints him. He’d like to spend more time here, just to stand in the memory of Gonta, he supposes. There _might_ be something important if he searches, but still, he has more things to attend to and not enough time. “Can we trust you two to investigate this lab?”

 

“No problem!” Angie sways left and right as she says, “Angie and Kiyo will scrutinize every nook~ and every cranny!”

 

“Thanks, you two.” He turns to Kaede, “Let’s go, I think these two have it covered.”

 

She smiles, “Sure!” She waves, “See you, Angie, Kiyo!”

 

“Bye-onara!”

 

They exit the lab, putting their faith in the two. Not knowing how much time they have left to investigate, they run up the flights of stairs rather than walk. Opening the doors reveal an ever-stoic Maki.

 

Kaede says in alarm, “Maki, what are you doing here?”

 

She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear as she observes the cabinet, not bothering to face them. “I wanted to know if it was true that you were hiding away poison.”

 

It’s awkward to have someone else in his lab, especially so when the guest doesn’t express give away any of what she’s feeling or thinking. Regardless, it’s his responsibility to tell her the truth. “I made the mistake of hiding these from you all. I put them back last night.”

 

“I know, I heard everything while you were talking to Kirumi and Kaito. That, and Kaito can’t keep his mouth shut.” She finishes scrutinizing the cabinet and turns to them. “I want to know which poisons were used. I know you have them, so show me.”

 

At her demand, Shuichi retrieves the bottles and shows her, “Here.”

 

She only takes one glance at the labels before glaring at him. It’s scary, he feels the hairs on the back of his neck rise up. “You’re not hiding anything, are you?”

 

He refutes, “No! Hold on,” he walks up to the cabinet to view each label. With his good memory and organization skills, Shuichi can confirm for a fact that the collection is missing the two he has in his hand “With these two, these are all of them!”

 

“Are you really sure?”

 

“Yes, I am”

 

Truth Bullet: Missing Poisons

In Shuichi’s lab, two bottles of poison are confirmed to have been taken.

 

Satisfied, Maki drops the glare. She asks Kaede, “Did you tell him what Kiyo and I thought?”

 

Kaede confirms, “Yeah, he found it strange, too.”

 

“I can’t make sense of the symptoms.” the detective puts a hand over his mouth as he thinks, “It’s like, the culprit used some sort of hodge-podge of poisons.”

 

Maki speculates, “The culprit can’t have used the ones in the gym, the symptoms are too narrow.”

 

Kaede asks, “Hey, how do you know so much about poison? Is that something that comes up a lot with children?”

 

The child caregiver tenses up and blushes, “Yeah,” she fiddles with her hair, “Kids don’t know what not to put their hands on.”

 

“Wow, you must be really smart, then! It’s like a kind of dangerous side, too. That’s really attractive to other girls, I bet.” Kaede happily compliments. The other girl’s blush turns redder.

 

“A-anyway, if that’s all, we should go back downstairs.”

 

“Ding dong, bing bong. Hello! It’s your favorite headmaster with some sort of unspecified alcoholic drink, here!”

 

Maki curses under her breath, “Looks like this is all the time we have.”

 

“Everyone, please gather at the Shrine of Judgement! You know, the place with the sexy statue of me? Hop to it!”

 

“We should get going,” Kaede says and leaves first.

 

Shuichi makes to follow, but Maki holds him back, “Wait, I have something for you.” She hides something in her fist and holds it out. Thinking it to be more evidence, he gasps over what she reveals.

 

It’s the ladybug brooch he gave to Gonta a few days back. He tentatively picks it up. A spot of old blood hides itself on the red surface. He starts to tear up. “...How?”

 

“The brooch fell out his sleeve after he convulsed again. I think, um,” she hesitates to share her thoughts at the sight of Shuichi sobbing over the item. “I think he held onto it until the end.”

 

Shuichi can’t help himself after hearing that. Tears fall across his cheeks. He asserts his gratitude to her, “Thank you… thank you so much.”

 

Maki, completely inexperienced with consoling people, can awkwardly address the other. “Er, right… Let’s go.”

 

By the time the two make it to the courtyard, Shuichi had stopped shedding tears, but his breathing has yet to calm down and he occasionally hiccups. Embarrassing, but it’ll be fine. He keeps the brooch safely in his inner jacket pocket and always keeps a hand hovering over it, just in case.

 

“Shuichi,” Korekiyo calls to him when he enters the shrine. Angie is next to him, holding a bottle of sorts with… a rag. “I spotted with my little anthropologist eye something I find to be extremely out of place in Gonta Gokuhara’s lab.”

 

“Gaze closely at this, Shuichi!” Angie says as she holds up a green bottle with a painted yellow hazard symbol. The symbol is the only thing informing Shuichi of the contents because the label had been torn off. Angie must be using the rag for safety.

 

“As you can see,” Korekiyo starts, “the bottle had been opened before, and it is half empty.”

 

“Do you know what’s inside?”

 

“Oh, no, I wouldn’t dare open this thing.”

 

“I see…” Shuichi contemplates the use of such a bottle, especially for Gonta. Why would Gonta ever need it? He doubts Gonta would ever consider using something so hazardous, so then why was it opened?

 

Truth Bullet: Hazardous Bottle

An opened bottle of toxic liquid that is nearly empty. The label has been scraped off.

 

“Thank you two for finding this, really.”

 

“Noooo problem! Atua is overseeing our fate. We are in good hands!”

 

Shuichi goes over all of the evidence in his head. No matter how the culprit carried the murder out, it’s malicious. For the sake of the living and the dead, he will find the culprit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really curious to know if it's possible to guess who the blackened is by both the evidence and thematic foreshadowing. Of course the trial will reveal more, but I really wanna know
> 
> Also, I'm very bad at keeping character arcs coherent


	15. Shuichi Part 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanna let you all know that anything that seems even remotely clever was an accident.

The first thing Shuichi sees upon entering the trial room is Gonta’s face… no, portrait. He leers in disdain at the ugly ‘X’ defacing what should be a proper sign of respect to their late friend. He pats the ladybug brooch in his pocket. At least here he can find his killer and… he looks to Kaede’s nervous yet steely expression. There’s no way Kaede is passing up the opportunity to find the mastermind here. He thinks back to the motive videos. What was their purpose? Why Gonta? It looks like they have an even larger mystery than his murder to solve.

 

CLASS TRIAL: IN SESSION

 

Nobody jumps in right away to argue their opinion. There’s too much confusion around the entire murder that even if someone does have an accusation, they don’t want to share it. Shuichi knows he should help everyone by giving them a place to start, but even he’s unsure about what the best topic to start with is.

 

“Um,” Tsumugi asks, “what is Angie holding?”

 

“I do not know!” she responds cheerfully, “Kiyo and I found it in Gonta’s lab.”

 

“Put that down,” Kirumi chastises, “That rag will not protect you from residual chemicals.”

 

“Okie-dokie~” Angie haphazardly tosses the bottle to the middle of the trial ground. Kirumi sighs.

 

Korekiyo takes the initiative to officially start the class trial, “First and foremost we should find out  _ why  _ the culprit targeted Gonta.” 

 

“This may sound blunt,” Ryoma says, “but if the target just wanted to escape they would target someone easier to take down.” He shifts his eyes to certain classmates. Tenko hisses when she sees his eyes land on Himiko. The mage merely shrugs.

 

Tsumugi asks, “Do you all think maybe the motive videos caused this?”

 

Guilt flashes across Kaede’s face. Shuichi sympathises. They are in the same boat, after all. Kaede has always given her support, and now she needs him. 

 

He breathes in then says, “Everybody, I know right now everything seems confusing, but we need to work together in order to get through this, which is why, I... I have something to confess to you all.” He sees Kaede’s expression change to one of surprise, then to gratitude. He continues, “I kept a dangerous secret. When our labs opened, mine provided me a cabinet full of poison.” He sees almost everyone’s astonishment at once. 

 

Kiibo asks, “What? This whole time?”

 

“Yes. It was a mistake to keep it. The only other person who knew, is… no longer with us.” Not a small number of students look to the deceased’s portrait. “I wanted to prevent something like this from happening, but it looks like… it only made things worse.”

 

“Oooohohoho, so the detective,” Kokichi says with faux surprise, “ _ lied _ .” Shuichi knew Kokichi would twist the knife, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less.

 

“Oh? Kiyo and I did not see any poison in Gonta’s lab,” Angie says.

 

“I put them back last night.” A whole load of good that did. He can feel the eyes on him, judging him, as if he’s the only potential criminal in the room. That is, until...

 

“Everybody, I’ve been keeping secrets, too!”

 

Kokichi, once again exclaims sarcastically, “Wow! No, way! Kaede too?”

 

“That’s surprising to hear from you,” Kirumi says.

 

“I know… I was trying to do the same thing as Shuichi, but it… I failed.” Kaede inhales deeply, “I watched my motive video.” 

 

“But you were the one who made us promise not to watch them, were you not?” Angie says.

 

Korekiyo comments, “I assume it’s safe to deduce that Gonta is the target, correct?”

 

“Yeah, the target  _ is  _ Gonta, but, it made no sense to me at all. I don’t remember anything that it told me… I can’t even remember my sister’s name.”

 

Shuichi asks, “You still can’t?”

 

“No… Shuichi, your’s doesn’t make sense either, right? Our stories are too far fetched.”

 

Maki asks, “You watched each other’s? What was in them?”

 

“When I watched Kaede’s motive video, it implied that her sister went missing due to Gonta’s family.”

 

Miu sputters, “Her sister was eaten by wolves?!”

 

“Obviously NOT, idiot,” Kokichi says.

 

“Hey…”

 

“No, it showed me an event I didn’t remember where I played for the Gokuhara family.”

 

Shuichi says, “By itself it wasn’t too improbable, but when I watched mine, things didn’t add up. It told me that I knew Gonta before and that my uncle went missing because of his family, too.” He sighs, “I just don’t get it, how could we both forget something like that?”

 

“About the same person, no less,” Kaede adds. 

 

Korekiyo says, “Our memories were supposedly wiped, so it is not surprising you two forgot about him, however,” an ominous aura surrounds him, “if Gonta was the target,  _ he _ may have known about  _ us _ .”

 

Kaede exclaims, “That’s what I was thinking!”

 

Shuichi had listened to Kaede’s theory that Gonta could be the mastermind. He never really believed it, and he thought Kaede wasn’t too serious about it. Except, he never considered something like this. Wouldn’t Gonta have said something if he knew? His silence was either of ignorance or secrecy. It’s impossible to find out now, though it doesn’t seem like that’s going to stop Kaede from trying.

 

Someone interrupts their theorizing, “I think we’ve beat around the bush enough.” Ryoma takes the black licorice from his lips, “We have a prime suspect to interrogate.”

 

Kiibo says, “Right, Rantaro was the first witness making him the first suspect. Not only that, he was claiming such odd things!”

 

Rantaro defends, “I went to the gym to find a ring I dropped.”

 

Kiibo rolls his eyes, “The same day the murder occurred, sure.”

 

“Rantaro’s not the only suspect,” Kaito says, “Miu was missing since dinner.”

 

“I didn’t do it!” she hastily claims.

 

Maki groans, “I won’t be convinced it’s either Rantaro or Miu until  _ Shuichi  _ proves he’s not the culprit.”

 

“Me?” That’s right. Besides Gonta, he was the only one who knew of the existence of poison. “Kaede and I were together this whole morning.”

 

“I can vouch for Shuichi,” Kaede testifies, “That means neither Shuichi nor I are the culprit.”

 

Maki pauses and glares, making Shuichi nervous. “The culprit had the poison, so you didn’t keep the secret very well at all.” Shuichi is a little bit hurt by her bluntness, but she has a point. Who else could have possibly known?

 

“Hmmm, Atua is telling me that Rantaro is the culprit!”

 

“What Angie said!” Miu shouts.

 

Rantaro relents, “I know I’m the most suspicious, but please, listen to my testimony, and we’ll get to the bottom of this, alright?” He closes his eyes to easier recall the incident. “I went to the gym before breakfast to search the gym. I saw Gonta lying on the stage and approached him. I didn’t realize he was dead until I was just a step away from him. There was no blood, no knife, nothing”

 

“He claims that it’s only after he retrieved Ryoma and I that those things appeared,” Kiibo says.

 

“Sorry to say, but we don’t believe him. I don’t know about you all, but a murderer doesn’t play around. Those wounds were from a fight.”

 

“Wouldn’t Rantaro’s clothes be super bloody, though?” Himiko asks.

 

Kiibo argues, “He had ample time to change before eight-thirty.”

 

Shuichi suspects something deeper in Rantaro’s testimony. It’s not just odd, it actually holds some merit. He needs a good piece of evidence to support his point, however. A glance to Kirumi solves his problem. “I think Rantaro is telling the truth, and I have a good reason why. Kirumi?”

 

“Are you referring to the kitchen knife?” Realizing his point, she shares her testimony, “The knife used to stab Gonta came from the kitchen and was taken last night during dinner. I know this for a fact because I was the first to the dining hall this morning and it was already missing by then.”

 

“So I would have had to have the knife since last night to pull this off,” Rantaro concludes.

 

Kirumi says, “In that case, I suspect Korekiyo, Himiko, and Tsumugi as the possible thieves.” 

 

“What? Why?” Himiko whines.

 

“Besides myself, you three were the only ones to enter the kitchen last night.”

 

“What about after dinner?” Tsumugi asks.

 

“Kaito and I were there for the majority of the night before the nighttime announcement, Isn’t that right?”

 

“Yeah, that’s true,” he says.

 

Maki states, “So that makes the only possible culprits Korekiyo, Himiko, Tsumugi, and Kirumi herself.”

 

Miu says, “Sweet! So I’m clear!”

 

“Not really.”

 

“Huh?” Shuichi asks, “Why’s that?”

 

Kokichi reclines back on his interlocked hands. “I’m just saying, one of them could have given the knife to somebody.” He laughs, “That, or the culprit and the person who stabbed Gonta postmortem are entirely different people and they’re fucked up in different ways.” Miu swears under her breath. Despite the fact his theory has no substantial evidence and no one trusts him to begin with, his theory planted a seed of doubt in everyone. Everyone is a suspect. Not only that, they don’t have any  _ prime  _ suspects either. He can’t even prove himself innocent.

 

Shuichi realizes that for now,  _ who _ got the knife is a dead end. If they find out  _ how _ it was used, it could lead them somewhere. “Why don’t we figure out how the murder occurred before pointing fingers?” General nods of agreement answer him.

 

Kiibo starts, “First of all, I find it hard to believe the culprit really fought Gonta.”

 

Himiko argues, “They had to have fought him, did you see Gonta’s wounds?”

 

“But they wouldn’t have  _ had _ to since they had poison…” Kiibo ponders, “So what would be the point?”

 

Shuichi says, “The Monokuma file states that he died from the poison, not the knife wounds. It’s possible the knife wasn’t used at all to kill him. Maki, you had something interesting to say about that earlier, didn’t you?”

 

“Right. The culprit didn’t fight him at all,” she explains. “The blood is too localized to one spot and his pose suggests he was protecting himself from poison gas, not an assailant.”

 

“Then what about his knuckles?” Himiko asks.

 

She answers, “That’s old blood. It has nothing to do with this morning.”

 

Shuichi hears a sharp inhale from next to him. He looks to Kaito seemingly having an epiphany. “What is it, Kaito?”

 

“What I heard last night…” he pales, “Do you think that could be related?”

 

“What are you talking about?” Maki asks.

 

“A bit before the nighttime announcement, I heard this  _ really _ loud banging from the gym.”

 

Tsumugi exclaims, “Oh, I did too! That was from the gym? I thought that was just the Exisals.” 

 

“Me three,” Rantaro says, “I figured it was from someone’s lab.”

 

Kaede asks, “What does this relate to?”

 

“I was observing the door, and there was a lot of old blood on it, you know? I think… I think that banging was from Gonta.”

 

“You’re saying Gonta got those wounds from hitting the door. So… he died last night.” Shuichi’s feelings of inadequacy resurface. He was with Gonta just that night. If only he had stayed with him, hadn’t made things awkward, would this have been avoided? If he hadn’t done any of this...

 

Tenko says, “But how was he trapped? I thought that degenerate was strong enough to break open a locked door.”

 

Kaito responds, “Something was slipped between the door handles so it was tougher.”

 

“Are you sure?” she questions.

 

“Yeah, the door handles were nearly off their hinges.”

 

Shuichi remembers the state of the door. How the door handles warped is a clear indication of something being pushed against it, but what? There was something in a similar state as the door handles, maybe... “I think the barbell blocked the door. It’s bent in the middle, and there were two indents that I think could line up with the broken door handles. You held it, didn’t you? Don’t you agree?”

 

Tenko squints her eyes, “Riiight, the culprit locked themselves inside with the thing we found  _ inside _ the gym.”

 

“Hold on, wasn’t that just before the night time announcement?” Ryoma asks, “If Gonta was in there, the alarm should have gone off.”

 

“Hey, Monokuma, answer me,” Maki demands, “Does it count as a violation of the rules if the student is dead?”

 

“What a wonderful question to ask, my dear student! You are correct to assume that corpses are not students, and therefore can’t break any rules!”

 

Deadpan, she says, “There. We have our answer.”

 

“So Gonta  _ was _ in the gym…” Kaede muses, “but he died just before nighttime… meaning the culprit wasn’t in there at all.”

 

Ryoma agrees, “That makes the barbell theory way more plausible.”

 

“No, no, that still can’t be right,” Rantaro argues, “Gonta was all the way at the stage, nowhere near the door.”

 

Kiibo says, “Right, and wouldn’t the culprit need to be in the gym with him? Otherwise, this murder is virtually impossible.” He ignores Himiko’s mutterings of magic.

 

“Ooh, ooh! My turn!” Miu insists. “The culprit shut the door on Gonta’s ass after he got on stage, filled the room with poison, then messed with the door from the  _ outside! _ ”

 

Kokichi exclaims, “Great! Now explain how that would ever work, because there’s no way in hell someone can indent the door from outside.”

 

“Err… I was just… joking...”

 

Shuichi recalls the bizarre setup. “No, you’re onto something. The culprit was not in the room at all during the murder, so they had to have made a trap. Miu, you’re talking about the torch making poison gas, right?”

 

“Yeah…?”

 

“How hot does the torch burn? And how long?” Korekiyo asks, “We need to be sure that it is possible to evaporate the poison.”

 

“Er, two thousand degrees for an hour.”

 

“I see,” he explains, “The poison Maki and I theorized to have killed him was strychnine. If heated enough, it can turn gaseous. Two thousand  _ well _ within the range of evaporation.” 

 

Ryoma says, “That’s great and all, but that doesn’t really explain how the culprit filled the room with poison gas without him noticing.”

 

“That’s right. As dumb as the male is, he would have noticed immediately!” Tenko exclaims.

 

Shuichi steps in, “Actually, the culprit did something fairly simple. Remember how the weights were setup? They concealed the torch and a glass cup.” 

 

“So they poured strychnine into the glass then boiled it with the torch. That  _ is  _ simple, but wouldn’t the glass melt?” Himiko asks.

 

“Glass melts at two thousand and eight hundred degrees,” Angie informs them, “If Miu is being truthful, the glass could not have melted.”

 

Tenko says, “But there wasn’t any strychnine, just whatever Shuichi found.”

 

“So the culprit used the poison from Shuichi’s lab?” Tsumugi corrects herself, “Wait, no, from Gonta’s lab.”

 

“No… that can’t be it,” Kaede asserts. “The culprit had no way of using the poison.” Shuichi looks to her in confusion. Of course the culprit pilfered from him. “Shuichi knows there’s no way, right?”

 

“Huh?” The culprit stole from him, definitely, but what could he know that disproves that the culprit stole from Gonta’s lab? Something clicks. “The culprit can’t have had the poison until after the murder.”

 

“Why not? That’s how they killed him, isn’t it?” Kaito asks.

 

“I relocated the poison back to my lab last night during dinner, and I made sure all of them were accounted for.”

 

Kaede elaborates, “What he’s saying is even if the culprit did know he had poison in Gonta’s lab, they’d have no way of knowing he moved it because most of us were at dinner. They’d have no time to search for it and  _ then _ kill Gonta before the night announcement.”

 

“That means our culprit already had something in hand!” Kiibo exclaims.

 

Tsumugi hesitantly asks, “So… where did they get it…?” Everyone directs their sight to the discarded bottle. 

 

“They used a substitute...” Shuichi sees a part of the puzzle come together. “Angie, you said that was in  _ Gonta’s _ lab, right?”

 

“Yes, Atua guided me to it!”

 

“Well, I found it, but no matter,” Korekiyo mutters. “Anyway, I never saw this bottle in the warehouse, or any other part of this school, so I believe the item is exclusive to Gonta’s lab.”

 

Tsumugi shakes her head, “But why? Gonta would never need something like that, let alone use it!”

 

Maki argues, “Nothing else could give Gonta those symptoms.”

 

She stomps her foot. “Then what is it?”

 

“It’s pesticide.” Korekiyo states. “Gonta is an entomologist, an overzealous one at that. I imagine Monokuma provided the pesticide for our sake more than Gonta’s.”

 

Tsumugi finally relents, “Oh, I see…”

 

“How can we be sure the culprit actually knew about the poison?” Kokichi asks, aiming to be unhelpful. “What if they just wanted the pesticide, and the rest is an awful, hilarious coincidence?” Shuichi is unsure if Kokichi is intentionally targeting him because of ignoring him yesterday or not. “What do you think, Mr. Detective?” He is.

 

“The culprit had to have known about the poison,” he explains, “I hid the poisons in the terrariums, and the terrariums are the only mess in his lab.” Kokichi breathes in to argue another contradiction, but someone beats him to it. 

 

“If you’re going to say the tamperer and culprit could be different people again, save it,” Maki demands.

 

Kokichi raises his hands in front of him, “Alright, alright, but don’t start whining if I turn out to be right.”

 

Shuichi decides it’s well past the time to put an end to Kokichi’s theory. “Look, how about we just assume they’re the same person until we reach an impasse? Then-”

 

“Then Rantaro’s the culprit.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Kiibo vigorously reasserts, “Rantaro is both the culprit and the tamperer!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for being so late and thank you all for being patient! <3


End file.
